Konnichi wa, Hello
by KatanaYuuki
Summary: My name is Kotone. I fit into my teenage social situations no better than putting a square into a triangular hole. It was a godsend that I had someone who was as unfortunate as I was through it all. Did we survive? I'm not even sure myself, really. [ SoulSilverShipping - BEING REWRITTEN - Chapters completed: 1/15 ]
1. Endurance

Everyone gets it: that sinking feeling right after summer break on a September Monday morning. You wake up, finding that the night's sleep goes faster than usual due to the ominous events to occur, and once your eyes open wearily the first thing you think of is:

_Oh, school._

_Shit._

Then it gets worse - you have to haul yourself out of bed (knowing that's one step closer to a dull, book ridden hell.) then the usual again; pull on the uniform gathering dust at the back of your closet - I even had to blow on it as if it were an ancient book – then go downstairs from your small attic-like room, being reminded that it's your first day back at school by your overly happy-slappy mother (who seems like she wants to get rid of you and uses school as an excuse). Then the final step - have a long, painful breakfast and go out of the door to the underworld (or "The Outdoors", some call it.)

I, wanting to prolong that last part as much as possible, ran back upstairs. I was expecting Hikari to come to my door and knock for me as always – I wanted to prolong that too.

Upon entering my room, I stared into my mirror; I looked like one of Satan's underlings in the fiery depths, except I'm on Earth (for now.) As I was enjoying staring endlessly into my awful reflection, my mother's voice rang intrusively: "Kotone! Hikari is here!"

Startled, I pulled my hair into the pigtails I always wore before tearing down the stairs at an incredible pace.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I saw my navy-haired friend, Hikari. You see, she's by default bright and bubbly - this is the complete opposite of what I am. As she stood there with the ridiculous smile stretching her face, I eyed her up and down. I stared at her head, seeing the night-sky coloured river of hair spilling perfectly down her shoulders, finding myself becoming instantly jealous of how great she looked in the mornings.

_I hate people._

After an awkward 30 seconds of staring (and feeling like I paid _way_ too much attention to her appearance) I finally looked her in the eyes, managing to supress a scowl that would make the toughest man on Earth cry.

She opened her mouth, "Kotone, it's great to see you after so long!"

I winced a bit - Hikari's voice always had sounded like a disastrous fusion of a 2-year-old child screaming bloody murder and the yell of a male mouse having his balls kicked in. Not hearing it for over a month strengthened the impact of the atrocity.

I raised my hand, lazily waving and taking my school bag before promptly slinging it over my shoulder. Despite all these factors of Hikari that I absolutely detested and felt like they should be burned in hell for as long as she lived and more, she was actually one of the only _decent_ people I've ever met.

_Believe me, _I find people less entertaining than eating 10 tonnes of cotton wool.

We ventured out into the outside world, where birds chirped and winds softly blew in the autumn air. _Eww, nature._

We were half-way up the road to the nearest bus-stop when Hikari stopped so suddenly, she nearly lost her balance. After a moment of silence, her eyes laid upon the bus stop which was barely in view from the bottom of the small paved hill we were currently half-way up. She sported a grin that would make the Cheshire cat jealous and squealed a little too long for it to be remotely amusing. During this spell of…whatever it was, she grabbed my hand, forcing me to splutter in surprise, and the only (listenable) justification I received was, "Come on come on come _on_, Kotone! I need to show you something!"

Truthfully, that was a bit of an anti-climax: I was hoping that she was gonna spontaneously combust and run around in panicked circles (much more entertaining).

Escaping her grasp, I raised my hands in protest but she inevitably grabbed them again and nearly dragged me across the floor, down the street to the bus stop. Well shit, we could have gotten here without all the hassle.

Turning my head, I saw something that made me smile for the first time that morning. I saw Silver, the one person who was much of a pessimistic bastard as yours truly. He sat, slouched on the small bus shelter with his elbows rested on his knees, and chin in his palms. His shirt was untucked messily and his blazer was tied around his neck like a cape. I gazed at the long crimson hair licking his cheeks, and noticed that he too managed to look better than me in the morning.

_People are horrible things. _

I looked at Hikari and she grinned at me scarily. Was this the thing she wanted to show me? If so, she couldn't have overreacted _more._ Treating Silver as a novelty was the most underwhelming thing in the history of ever. I sat beside him, exchanging a glance or two because we both knew we weren't in the mood for talking. _Nobody should be in the mood for talking at 7:30AM in the fucking morning._ Hikari plopped herself down next to me, whipping out her phone and acting like she was actually doing something with it. I knew full well she was just excluding herself from any kind of social situation that could occur at the present time. Quite frankly, I didn't blame her one bit.

It was a long silence before the bus arrived, and the sounds of such _beautiful_ nature began to do more than annoy me. The bus pulled up with a mechanical screeching just in time before I started kick-starting my first career in inventing my own bird-killing weapons using materials only from my pencil case.

Begrudgingly hauling ourselves onto the bus, Silver and I looked to the back seats to lay eyes upon five girls sitting at the back doing disgusting typical teenager-y things as Hikari ran to join them. I preferred to sit next to Silver in silence, staring at the patterns threaded into the somewhat soft seating of the bus as the other idiots around me made their noise. I chose to sit to the left, which was the opposite side of where Barry was. Knowing Barry and his overly energetic personality, he had most probably run five laps of the bus before he had even sat down and then completed an entire gymnastics routine _whilst the bus moved. _

Barry is another reason I hate humans. The guy has too much energy – so much I'm surprised he hasn't been kept on a leash and been identified as some other kind of species – and has seemingly only one goal in life: to annoy everyone he comes into slight contact with, regardless of whether they were an outcast or some jock who would pummel him to the ground in 5 seconds flat. He's still living (somehow) and had appeared to have picked his target for this term.

Staring into the back of the bus where he was sat – no - _bouncing up and down _– I saw the hyperactive blonde leaning over the seat in front of him and tugging hard onto spikey, gravity-defying hair. This term's victim would be…interesting to say the very least. The spikey (almost) white-blonde hair belonged to Volkner, who was one person I could stand as a matter of fact. Volkner never was in a good mood, and was always staring very hard at whatever happened to be in front of him at that time in dumbfounding amounts of concentration. It was rather inhuman, actually, how he could stare for so long without even twitching. (It also happened to be a godsend that he hadn't torn Barry's head from his shoulders.)

Before anything drastic happened, my eyes darted elsewhere. I settled upon the girls near the backseats, and a (stupid) commotion appeared to be occurring.

"Well Gardenia, you'll just have to deal with it – I'm _not_ doing that for _you_of all people."

Ah, Marley. Marley is the school bossy-git everyone's afraid of. Nobody fucks with Marley and gets away with it. She has jet black hair, of which she usually ties up into long pigtails. On her face are the muddiest brown eyes I've ever seen on a girl and when she's angry, Marley's eyes turn a stern steely grey colour. This frightening death-glare makes douchebags run for the hills.

Her mouth is always fixed into either an angry frown, or a cocky, triumphant smirk - neither of which were good.

You see, if you get her frown, you've fucked it up (which is scary in itself). If you get a smirk, you better start running before she displays your pathetic little head on a spiked pole.

Then there's Gardenia was fairly loud and stubborn. She would always annoy Marley with her constant nagging and pestering – then again, Gardenia would annoy _everyone_ she came across with that annoying habit of hers. She owed most people favours but never paid them back like a decent existence would, such favours were as simple as handing her homework to a teacher you were just about to pass, or buying her food at lunch break.

So far, she owed around a thousand favours, and hadn't repaid any of them. If you haven't guessed already: she's on my hit list.

Speaking of irritating…

A voice nearby to Gardenia threatened my hearing, "Wah! Keep your feet to yourself Gardenia! You're getting my cute new knee socks dirty!"

_Whitney._ Whitney is the short girl with pink pigtails that nobody likes. We all _pretend_ to like her because she has midget's rage inside her. She'll kick you in the shins so hard you'll fall flat on your face, then she'd laugh at you and run off like a 6 year old with no sense of direction. Whitney _hates_ to lose, even if she's losing a game in gym class, she would cry her eyes out and sit down on the floor transforming into an unmovable, irritating time-bomb who sniffles every 10 seconds or so. I personally believe that there's a reason why her eyes are red - I have a feeling that maybe she the reincarnation of that one kid from the Omen Trilogy.

We all knew that once Pinky McSmallTitties started causing a racket, all hell would break loose. "Whitney, just shut up!" Marley yelled, smacking the girl behind her pink, annoying little head. Whitney screamed as if she was rehearsing an extra cameo in _300_, leapt over Gardenia and onto Marley, futilely kicking and wailing in anger as she spat out insults like they were bullets from a gun. Marley tensed angrily, and she leered down at Whitney, the bridge of her nose wrinkling in pure rage.

Silver muttered under his breath: _"Three…two…one…"_

Whitney screamed as she was thrown off of Marley and onto the floor, rolling down it as she held her stomach. She landed right at the other end with a small thud.

Everything went hilariously silent. Even Barry stopped whatever he was doing to boldly stare at the crumpled up body that was shaking in a heap near the bus' driver's seat. I felt the silent praise Marley was receiving from every soul on the bus besides Whitney.

After about a minute of whimpering like a small dog, Whitney shakily stood up, growling and fuming with her hair askew and far from the perfection it was about 120 seconds ago.

"MARLEY, I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS SO HARD!" she yelled, bolting like lightning to the back of the bus and leaping onto Marley once more.

I watched as the two girls began to have a catfight on the floor, rolling back and forth and it began to cross my mind that the bus driver hadn't even noticed.

Perhaps he was enjoying seeing Whitney getting her teeth kicked in and refused to disturb the justice taking place.

Candice who was sitting next to Volkner, cheered and whistled. Volkner observed with raised eyebrows, which was a miracle considering nobody thought the guy even had the facial muscle strength to change facial expressions. Silver sighed and turned back to looking out of the window, evidently bored, and meanwhile Hikari stood up and cheered for Marley, being the physical embodiment of what everyone felt inside.

Barry's face stretched into a surprised realisation, and he screamed so loud every single deity in existence could hear: "WE'RE HERE!" as the bus pulled up to a halt outside the school.

Volkner's hand finally flew onto Barry's face with a satisfying crash, which was his way of saying: _'Shut up, you annoying fuck.'_ Barry rubbed his nose, seemingly unfazed by the swollen nose he had just recently acquired. The bud doors opened with a squeak and the two girls on the floor stopped pulling at each other's hair. Marley lifted Whitney off of her body and placed her onto the floor like a mother getting rid of a small child before standing up, dusting herself off as if nothing had happened, and strutting out of the doors. Whitney stood up in a silent fury, wonkily stepping out of the bus after Marley. People began to wake up and come to their senses, picking up luggage and making their way sleepily out of the bus too. I hung back for a while to escape the crowd while Silver casually followed on after me, looking up at the ceiling. Once we had all drowsily dribbled out of the vehicle, I looked over at the flow of school students pouring into the gates of Goldenrod High. Silver stood next to me, Hikari on the other side.

Silver's eyes flitted over to me, "This year's gonna suck so hard."

"When does it not."


	2. Further Endurance

**Konnichi Wa, Hello Chapter two**

**-XxX-**

Once we went into the gates, they eerily shut behind us, as if to say that we were trapped forever in no means of escape. The whole campus was packed with teens, all in groups, you would get the odd one or two that were playing portable games on their own, also known as the geeks. But I froze as I heard a voice emanate behind me in a sly and horrid tone,

"Hi Kotone…I see you haven't thought of an original hairstyle yet."

Damn.

It was Crystal. My absolute worst and mortal enemy: Here's the thing. She thinks I copy her hairstyle, which I don't, it's just the only one that suits me, apart from when it's down, but then I look more mature, around seventeen, but of course I don't have the body of a seventeen year old, when I'm only fourteen, Hikari glared at Crystal in my defence. Who was grinning deviously? Also, she apparently was not grinning at me but at Silver. She has this crush on him, and thought that I 'took him away' when we became friends. Because Silver used to hang around on his own, of course. And to be honest, I thought Silver was cute, he was just…anyway. Crystal is a bitch, period.

"Mind if I borrow Silver for, ooh…let's say-"

"You can't take me anywhere." Silver interrupted, his hazel eyes transfixed on me, making sure that Crys did nothing, and stepped no further. If (and I mean _If!) _Silver was my boyfriend, he was damn well protective.

"Oh, well." She looked around her sides to get smirks from her 'disciples' who followed her wherever she went. The one on the right side of her had cherry pink hair, which flowed down her back all the way down to her hip; her ears were being pulled on by some fluorescent blue earrings, which nearly touched her shoulders. The other had the same kind of pink hair, but it was slightly more of a faded pink, in two bunched ponytails on either side of her head, and was eating chewing gum, with her mouth open. To be honest, they were all chavs and the ties to their sailor uniform were all low, and it looked horrible. And while Crys was staring, and smirking, it probably bought her time to think of a comeback.

"It's not like you're devoted to Kotone anyway, right?"

Seriously: the wrong choice of words there, Crystal. Silver narrowed his eyes and frowned at her, then, came up behind me, and caught his arms around my waist and pulled me toward him, I blushed, madly. Which added to my humiliation, but I had to play along with it, so I awkwardly snuggled into him, Silver still glaring at Crystal, she went all shades of red known to the rainbow, shot a deadly glare at me, and gritted her teeth, then turned and stormed off, her followers ran after her, calling her name. Silver let go of me, and I let go of him, Hikari stood gawking at us,

"We're not together in _that _way, it's just to get Crys away from me."

Hikari nodded, still looking confused, and then the bell rang for us to make our way to our form tutor.

Now, our tutor room is an ICT room, it has three columns of computers, that are on desks, and two chairs to a computer, there's a tutor notice board, with all kinds of stickers and photos on. All over the walls there are design and interface posters, movies animation tutorials for A-levels, and you can probably guess the rest. Our tutor is the Physical Ed teacher, his name was Brawly. Well, that was his first name, but we call him Mr B, he's real nice to us, and lets us have our Pokémon out in the classroom, (only few teachers let us do that) so I let my Flygon out, of course, Flygon is big enough to fit through the door, Silver let out Umbreon, (which had strangely evolved during the day) Crys had her own corner with the two rosettes, gawking over her 'cute' Bayleef which looked a tad scared, I don't blame the poor thing. Riley was in the opposite corner, sitting on a desk, smiling at his Lucario, feeding it cookie crumbs, Cynthia had her Lucario out too, and they were both staring dreamily at Riley and his counterpart. Brawly *Ahem, I'm sorry, Mr B* was sitting at his desk looking at us all, we were a really small tutor group, Mr B had a Machop. Which was always on his desk, sitting cross-legged, Hikari had her Piplup running around everywhere, and squirted my Flygon in the face, being a ground type, it didn't like that one bit. So Flygon glared at it. The Piplup got frightened, and climbed onto Hikari's head. Since Flygon was like, ten times bigger than it. Mr B stood up, everything went silent, and I could see a shadow behind the door to the store cupboard, and the door opened.

"Ladies and Gents, this is our new tutee, his name is Chip, be nice to him!"

The boy that stood next to Mr B was definitely handsome; he had long, black shoulder length hair, of which he tied up in a small ponytail at the back of his head. He had smouldering blue eyes, and tanned skin. This guy's hair was smooth and shiny, parted in two front bangs that reached his eyes, resting on his temples. And I cheesy grin plastered across his face. This gained a few blushes and whispers from the girls. By his side was a Meganium, which strangely had a blue flower around the base of its neck, (the Majority of Meganium having a pink flower.)

Mr B dismissed us, we made our Pokémon return, and we went to first period. Silver and Hikari followed either side of me, as usual, but there were some kind of magnetic repellent between the two, as they never talked, and silently argued over me somewhat, using eye contact, of course.

"Well this is where we break up guys! I got to go to history!" Hikari said cheerfully. But I was sure that her face dropped after she turned her back to us, personally I don't blame her, but I'll tell you about that when the time comes. I watched her slouched figure trudge up to the humanities building, with purple walls and four windows at the front, since there weren't many classrooms. I forgot that Silver was standing behind me, and then in front.

"What the fuck!" I shouted - it made me jump as he suddenly appeared in front of me like that. I noticed that everyone had cleared off into their classrooms; therefore leaving campus completely dry of people.

"I'd like it if you didn't swear so loud." Silver said bluntly, I stared up at him with a gaping mouth, not that it was meant to hang open on its hinges. Silver dragged me off by the hand, causing me to blush at the back of his head, we made our way towards the English department, which was also, quiet, the lockers and walls a lemon yellow, Teachers and teens stared at the read head, pulling along a dazed brunette with a marshmallow for a hat, which she is desperately holding onto, they were laughing at us, of course. We reached our classroom, and all eyes fell upon us. Barry cheered, like he always would, and Crys fumed, as she saw that Silver had a firm grip on my hand. Our teacher frowned at us spitefully; she had violet hair, evil red eyes, and porcelain skin. Her name was Miss Yami, and she _wasn't _nice. She slammed her book on the desk, which made me squeeze Silver's hand. Who didn't realise that he still had his hand in my own.

"Silver, Kotone, and Sit." she said rather coolly.

Well that wasn't as bad as I thought…I sat next to Hibiki and Silver sat next to Erika, who looked away immediately in shyness.

"Now, Kotone, Silver, You have detention with me, after school."

And I thought we had it bad when she even spoke. I bowed my head, and looked to Silver, who rolled his eyes. I clasped my left hand, trying to recreate the feeling of Silver grabbing my hand, but I couldn't, of course.

"Now, back to what I was saying before getting _rudely _interrupted, we are discovering new techniques of writing this term…"

I twirled my pencil in between my fingers, watching it swirl and dip, it was like my own ship, in a sea of boring words.

"…We are studying advertising"

Great, we were watching commercials all lesson, _fun._

It turned out worse than I thought, we watched a few adverts to begin with, then an advert for a carpet. And it didn't help that Hibiki was sitting next to me, because of course, it was a woman walking on a carpet, with a dressing gown on, everyone else was head down, writing down the points of advertising, but the head that was up, was Hibiki the pervert, staring at the woman's ass, I wouldn't be surprised if drool was- Oh wait, it already was. That was… uh, interesting, Silver wasn't even paying attention, he was just slumped on his desk, and his hair sprawled across it in a messy red patch. Then the advert ended, and I heard a voice pull me out of my void of thoughts:

"Kotone! Say one technique they used in the advertisement"

Damn, it was Miss Yami.

"Uh…They used…uhm…" I looked around for information, in other words, someone else's book. Crys was smirking, enjoying every minute of this, Silver still had his face in a small gap between his arms, and he could be asleep for Christ sakes! I caught a glance of Marley's book; she had one thing written down:

_Voice over._

"Voice over, Miss" I said, almost proudly, gaining a poisonous glare from Marley, who had watched my 'scouting for words'

"Correct, and how does the advert make you want to buy the product"

Damn, now I wish I had paid attention.

"Uh, it makes…the carpet…look clean?"

Everyone laughed at me, Silver smirked, one of those sideways smirks, and Crystal? She was in spiteful hysterics. As I expected. Miss Yami shushed us,

"Well, that could be an encouragement, but unfortunately, I don't think it's much of a contributing factor, Kotone."

I mentally beat myself over and over, I should have said nothing.

"But Silver, you didn't even look at the screen, and neither did you Kotone, spending most of the time looking around at your peers, so extended detention for both of you"

I groaned and smacked my head against my desk, making a loud thump and gave me a headache for the rest of the lesson. No, I'm sorry, I meant _hell_.

The clock hit the eleven 'o clock mark, so it was second period, _Whoop-de-do!_ We had math next, I was in most lessons with Silver, so we travelled around the school together, okay, maybe that was a lie, I have _All _my lessons with him, and he's one of my best friends, so we go everywhere together.

"Hey Kotone! I see you've got detention, you're such. A. _rebel!_" Crys said with sarcasm, while cackling like an evil witch, I wanted to rip out her throat, shove it in her face, and make her swallow it, so she could choke on it later. Silver seized my hand again, Crys scowled at me, and then she ran off, to her followers, of course.

"You can let go of my hand now, you know." Silver said candidly, I did as I was ordered to, I did so reluctantly though, since I felt safer with his contact.

We approached the math block, which was opposite the English dept. And great, this year I have Lucian as my teacher. (again, the situation of knowing the teachers first name.) The psychic Pokémon wielding Lucian, with the purple-tinted frameless sunglasses that reads books all the time. And the lavender purple shoulder-length, wavy hair to match. We lined up against the wall until Lucian came out, a Medicham following behind him. Lucian was reading a book entitled 'all the while the world turns' sounded pretty boring to me, no more exciting than a stick, being honest.

"Get in." Lucian said in a tone that made all of this sound like a bore to him, he always talked like that. I hate math, and I probably always will, it has literally no point, it only brings pain, you see, Math equals numbers- numbers equals money, money equals debt, poor people, and generally nothing is buyable. Unless you have a tenner on you. That's when you could buy maybe a couple of…necklaces. I thought of this theory in maths, and answering questions in between, like:

"Kotone! What's fifty per cent of 2.5?" As if to snap me out of a theatrical hypnotism.

"1.25..." I lazily reply, and go back to working on 'degrading math' theories.

One 'o clock in the afternoon, lunch time.

Hikari and Silver joined my sides and Hikari pointed towards the canopies across campus, where there were benches, and doors to the cafeterias. Sitting on one of the benches were Volkner and Candice, they didn't seem to talk, until.

Oh. Shit.

Barry came hurtling past us, his lime scarf and beige rucksack whistling past him. Hikari nearly fell on her butt, but I caught her in time.

"Thanks Kotone…" She breathed.

Barry continued toward Volkner, and stopped right in front of his face, leaning over and grinning at him, we moved closer, to see the action, Volkner moved his head away from Barry's, his eyes wide, and Candice just giggled to herself. Barry pressed his index finger to Volkner's nose.

"Volkner?"

"What the hell do _you _want?" Volkner replied, a hint of shock still in his voice.

"To talk." Barry ginned, and ran around to the other side of the bench, literally so fast you couldn't see him move. Barry leaned onto the back of the loveseat bench and started to talk to him, still grinning from ear to ear.

Volkner have a pained look and sighed. He was in for it now.

"Heh, he has a lot of energy, eh?" An unfamiliar voice called behind me, it was male, and childish, but still had that teenage hint to it, I rather liked it. I turned to see a Meganium and Chip, leaning against one of the column poles for the canopy,

"Yeah, but that's Barry!" I laughed forcefully,

_Bad first impression Kotone! Really Crap!_

Chip laughed too, I noticed that he had a pair of bolt-yellow earphones connected to something in his bag,

"You have an iPod?" I asked him, he nodded, And took out an orange metallic slim iPod, Silver grunted in the background, he and Hikari were watching this, I sat down on a bench and he followed, Silver and Hikari sat next to me, eyes transfixed on my every move.

"You like Lil' Flip?" He asked me, I awkwardly nodded, I had heard of him, but never heard any of his songs. On the iPod screen, there was a rapper, with dark skin and curly tattoos up the lengths of his arms his knuckles pressed together, and behind him gold letters read 'Lil' Flip' and in front, underneath his arms read: Respect me. Chip took one of the earphones and I heard a high pitched voice of a woman, with a slow rappers beat, singing:

**R-E-S-P-E-C-T**

**Me.**

**Oh-Oh**

**Oh-Oh**

I as the rap started I got into it, Chip grinned at me, and started to flick through his songs, then one caught my eye

**Eminem- Mockingbird.**

"can you play that one?" I asked, and pointed to it, he looked at me, and smiled,

"Yep yep! Sure thing!"

A voice began to talk, and Eminem began to rap, I bobbed my head up and down with the rhythm and then the chorus came:

**Now Hush little baby don't you cry,**

**Everything's gonna be alright**

**Stiffen that upper lip up**

**Little lady I told you**

**Daddy's here to hold you,**

**Through the night.**

Then we heard a squeal, which made me look up, and take the earphone out,

"Oh my god big bro Volkner! Gimme! Gimme!"

"I told you to stop calling me that…" Volkner was holding out a candy bar to Barry, to us, that was triggering a time bomb, Barry took it from the stoic blonde and hastily unwrapped it, knowing that would get Barry away from him,

Barry unwrapped it,

Barry put it in his mouth,

Barry chewed,

"NYAAAAAAAH!" he screamed, and zipped round and round the bench, Candice looked at him, as if to say: You need help. And lots of it.

Barry ran into the cafeteria and some screams could be heard from inside, way to go Volkner, you set him off,

Again.

Ladies and gentlemen, the bomb has now exploded. Please make your way across the canopy and evacuate the building.

Thank you.

Of course. The classes are boring. you get a detention in your first lesson of the day. And there's the bitchy blue haired girl that likes Silver, the boy that hangs around with you, and thinks you copy their hairstyle, and her name is Crys. Or Crystal if you want to be formal. Plus you get Hibiki who, in a lesson where you're meant to be studying advertisement techniques, stares at the woman's ass instead of the carpet in the advert. (even if the carpet is the thing that's being advertised.) And when you have lunch break, there's a guy called Barry who zips around the cafeteria, decimating the place, just because grumpy git Volkner gave him a candy bar, just to get him away.

Everyone, including you, goes through that.

No?

Oh.

My name is Kotone.

And I went through all that and on my first day back too.

_**~Authors note~**_

_**EDIT:  
Grammar improved. Spelling improved.**_


	3. Wardrobes Shouldn't Be Messed With

**Konnichi wa, Hello Chapter Three**

**-XxX-**

At the end of the day, I walked as slowly and painfully as possible up to Miss Yami's room, her door looming over me, I gulped, it looked like the gateway to hell. I looked around nervously, and then looked at the giant clock above the door,

_If she doesn't turn up in ten minutes, then I can go…I can go. It's ten minutes…just ten minutes…Yeah! That'll fly by!_

I tried to cheer myself up, but the clock hand wouldn't move an inch, after a few long minutes, I saw someone come around the corner, and down the corridor. I Sealed my eyes; I didn't want to know who it was. In the case of it being Miss Yami, I backed up against the wall, my hands balled into fists.

"Kotone." A blunt voice spoke, it was close to me, and how the hell did it get _Here, _in that _Time? _It scared the crap out of me, and I fell forwards and whoever it was in front, caught me, their hands around my back and head, my face buried into their chest (it was a boy, they didn't have boobs people.) I opened my eyes slowly and in the corner of my eye, a lock of crimson hair fell next to my eyelash. I came to my senses, it was Silver.

"S-Silver?" I asked, just to be sure, unintentionally stuttering. The boy lifted my chin with his finger and thumb, his thumb finger slotted under my lip, and lo and behold. It was Silver.

"What?" He grunted, I blushed, unable to stop it from burning my face.

"Th-Thanks for catching me…" I stuttered, averting my eyes, What? I can't help it! His face was inches away from mine!

"Whatever…" He looked away, still cradling my head, I was wondering if Crys was nearby. He was being…Touchy.

Then the sound of pin-heels echoed down the corridor, a pale woman with tightly tied violet hair, her cheekbones visible, hugging some papers came to the door and looked at us.

"now, if you've quite finished, you two have detention" The Violet-haired teacher looked at me. While blushing, I parted from Silver and looked up at the clock, it'd been twenty minutes, if only I hadn't spent so much time hugging Silver…Wait, I was hugging him for _that long?_

That went quickly.

Miss Yami raised an eyebrow and unlocked the door to her room, we were told austerely to sit down, for the sake of being a scared idiot, I sat next to Silver. We sat and watched the clock, well, I did, and Silver just had his face in his hands. Bored, as usual, I was glad that Miss didn't hand us any papers, otherwise I would be screwed. I wasn't in the mood for more work.

Then I wished I'd left when I had the chance out there.

"Oi, Miss Yami, I got to det from you."

That annoying, and, familiar voice came from outside, along with the sound of gum being chewed.

"Crystal, please don't talk to me that way, I'll extend your detention, and spit out the gum. That's the reason you're here, chewing in my lessons."

Crap, Crap, Crap!

The turquoise haired girl walked into the classroom, rolling a ball of pink gum between her fingers, strands of it sticking to them. She flicked it into the bin, then looked around, I tried my best to hide my face, Crystal looked my way and I thought she was burning a hole through me, with that venomous look she'll hand to people she didn't like. Then her eyes softened when she looked at the red hair beside me, and she smiled at it, even though Silver wasn't paying one bit of attention.

"Crystal. Sit down" Miss Yami ordered. I winced at her icy voice, I hated her, and I hated Crystal, how deficient can a detention get?

Crystal sat down on the seat directly behind Silver, I tensed up, she could do anything, kick me, burn me, stab me in the back with a sharpened pencil, you name it, she was capable of doing all those things and she would carry them out willingly. I sat through the whole detention like it, watching the clock like a hawk keeping its eye on its prey. Eventually Miss Yami spoke, to break the eerie silence.

"Kotone, Silver, you may leave."

And it made me jump right out of my skin; I sat frozen in the seat for about ten seconds, before I shot up, and ran out.

Stupid, embarrassing, gawky. Three words to describe my dramatic, and quite dynamic, exit. Silver quietly followed. I walked down the stairs that seemed to sparkle, and realised that that felt like the longest detention I've ever had. Probably Crystal ended up laughing, like a witch. As she always would, oh jeez.

Once we reached the gates, (Which didn't take long, of course.) Silver sighed, and looked at me. I waved at him like the absurd person I was.

"Kotone…" He started, I looked up at him, the atmosphere went dark, due to the skies clouding over, and I could swear a drop of rain dampened a spot in my hair, I felt the spot, in case a bird had flew over me, which would usually be my typical luck, but alas, no white on my fingers.

"What is it?" I asked, Silver began to drum his fingers on his across-the-shoulder bag, which was more bulged than usual, as if he had stuffed his luggage into it,

"Could I maybe…stay at yours overnight? I kind of had an argument with my Dad…" He finished, looking away, feeling around his bag even more, I didn't know how to react; Mom probably had him in her bad books, from this morning, if you couldn't tell. But I could sneak him in…?

"Uhm…I don't know, I mean, we could try and sneak in, because my Mom won't let you today…"

"Sneaking in is fine with me." He replied almost instantly. This took me by surprise.

"But what about clothes and stuff for tomorrow?" I asked, trying to edge him away from the idea of sleeping over.

He patted the bulge sticking out from the material in his bag; I instantly knew what he meant.

"Oh. Well, I guess we have some sneaking to do…" I trailed off, looking up at the sky, the heavens began to open, and the whole atmosphere lost its colour, becoming ugly. Silver noticed too, and mimicked me.

"We need to get going" I mumbled, walking away, assuming Silver would follow. My assumptions were correct; I heard the silent tap of steps against the paving.

The bus top deck wasn't full like this morning, no hyper Barry, no group of over-excited girls at the back, no Riley and Cynthia, and Erika for that matter. It felt lonely, and I didn't like it at all. Silver and I sat at the front, on the upper deck, watching the rain hammer the window in front, and beside us, trees swaying up and down with each heavy raindrop. I pulled out my iPod, hoping I could listen to something that would lighten my mood, but alas, Evanescence was the only band worth listening to at that moment, and that was mostly dark stuff that would dampen everything known to man.

"You sure we can sneak in?" Silver asked, I nodded, hoping that it was true. And I wouldn't die in the morning.

We departed the bus and walked down the street until we reached my flower-surrounded house, the curtains were all drawn, which usually indicated that it didn't contain anyone at the present time, I sighed, and walked up to the burgundy door, which was the only thing dry from the shelter it was granted. I fumbled around in my bag, sliding my hand underneath the bottom of paper, until I felt something that jingled, and had that metallic feel, I yanked it out of my bag, it was. My keys.

I slotted them into the lock, making them jingle and the door creaked open, making that familiar sound it always did on its hinges. Silver followed me in, closing the door behind him,

"Don't leave your shoes here, shove them in my room" I reminded him, and he nodded at me, we nearly fled upstairs, but I needed to check the rooms downstairs, so Silver ran up to the top, and sat on the highest step, making them creak, they were as old as the house, and god knows when _that _was made. Mom didn't seem to be in, she wasn't her keys and shoes were absent from their place in the wooden shoe rack and the wicker key basket, which was atop the sideboard. I checked the kitchen, breakfast leftovers, and other things that Mom hadn't cleaned since this morning, the coast was clear downstairs.

I pushed my door open, after pointlessly checking the upstairs rooms and slung my bag onto my bed, Silver looked around the attic-like room, observing its plain-ness and boring traits. No pink wallpaper, or posters, just a bed, desk, wardrobe and rug with my inanimate, emotionless plushies. My room sucks, real bad too.

"Where do you want to sleep?" I asked, he couldn't sleep on the rug, Mom would find him in the morning.

"I don't know. The best possible solution would be to sleep with you." He said with no emotion present. However, it made me blush,

A lot.

I nodded slowly, as if I was replying and agreeing at the same time. He chuckled at my reaction,

"Don't worry, I'm not going to try anything funny." he smiled at me, and I didn't feel one ounce better about the awkwardness of the moment, I just gave a huffy laugh and ripped my shoes off, Still hot-faced.

"Hey! Kotone! You home?"

Damn! Mom!

"Yeah! I'm…home…" I thought about what I was trying to say, in case it gave away what I was hiding.

"Aw! C'mon! Give me a hug, I'm your Mom!" She called up the stairs, then her footsteps came nearer, I started to panic, threw Silver's bag under the bed, and Silver followed its motion, rolling under the frame. I hoped he was holding his breath; Mom stepped in at that moment, her face smiling at me,

"What was all that rustling I heard? It also sounded like you were talking to someone? You're not hiding something, are you?" she said as she raised one of her eyebrows, smirking. I shuddered at the image of my mother finding Silver under my bed.

"I tripped over my bag… and I was talking to myself, Don't worry about it!" I grinned sheepishly, waving my hands in front of my face.

"Right…" Mom raised another eyebrow, and gave me a-You're-hiding-something-from-me,-I can't-be-fooled-that-easy-look.

"Seriously!" I raised my voice at her, and my face returned to the serious expression I had before she entered the room.

"Well, I'm sure you won't mind me looking around then!" She grinned, I didn't think she would do this; I was mentally berating myself, why didn't I think of this situation! I kept my eyes on her, struggling not to scream out that Silver was there and just admit it, I sat down beside my bed, where Silver was hiding, underneath, of course. I hugged my knees, and breathed heavily, she came closer to the bed, just having been checking the wardrobes contents, I held my breath and awaited the "Who's this?" question,

as she knelt down beside me,

And looked under.

"Okay, I believe you now Kotone." She said to me, I looked up, trying not to let out a: "What the hell?"

"Eh?" I Simply replied,

"I Believe you, there's nobody in here." She said as if I was a mentally deranged idiot.

"Okay…" I breathed, that few minutes was too tense, it left me nearly speechless. I hoped Mom didn't catch that in my voice, it would give my secret away. Once she left, Silver rolled out from…underneath the wardrobe? It was a high-legged wardrobe, and it was next to my bed, but how the hell did he get _under there? _I asked him this, and he just chuckled, still lying on the floor, his hair sprawled out, that answer annoyed the hell outta me. I was beyond curious now, I had to assume that while Mom was talking to me, he changed places, it was a small gap, so I eyed Silver's waist, I had to admit, he was skinny, tall, but skinny, and flat enough to fit.

"Enjoying your little gawking session?" He muttered with a small smirk, I snapped out of it and stuck my tongue out at him, I was so immature sometimes. Once I had withdrawn my tongue I answered:

"No, I was wondering how you managed to travel from the bed to the wardrobe so fast" I said bluntly. Silver sat up slowly, his face returning to normal, hair in place and all. Of course, we were being quiet; I didn't want another episode with my mother. We sat in silence for a few minutes, but I shot up, and ran out, I ran downstairs and collected my laptop from the couch, then snuck past Mom in the kitchen,

"I'm back." I announced. Silver hadn't shifted from the floor; in fact, he was lying on the floor again. Once I stepped in, Silver sat up and looked around to look at me, I sat on the bed, making the mattress shift under my weight, Silver sat there too, next to me, the bed didn't direct the weight to him, it was more balanced, but I still was the heaviest object.

As usual.

I flipped the top up on my laptop. I had left it on since last night, my messenger and internet were still open and running, the computer signed me in on MSN, and my username was simply 'Kotone' because I couldn't think of anything else that I could name myself. Silver watched intently, as if he was searching for something, there was a reason I brought this into my room, we couldn't go downstairs, simply because Silver was still an alien creature to Mom, and we needed something to do. After a few hours, of avoiding Mom, and talking to Hikari who got all girly when she saw Silver on web cam, and thought we were together, that took a lot of reminding her that we weren't a couple, then I ran out of things to see, and after a few minutes,

"What do you wanna do on here?" Silver asked, his cheek nearly touching mine,

"Watch something…since we can't go downstairs, you choose what, if you'd like." I replied, turning the keyboard to face him, Silver typed something in, I wasn't sure what, but it was a long name, then once he turned it back, he turned the lights off, I widened my eyes in horror at what he wanted to watch:

_Higurashi no naku koro ni_

I had an incident with this anime, when I was four, I wondered what it was, so I typed it into a computer, it scared the crap outta me, I cried and cried, had nightmares about it, and have never watched it since. I gulped, Silver turned to face me, his face full of confusion.

"What's the problem with it? don't you like anime?"

I nodded. As in, 'yeah, I do'

"Then what's the problem..?"

I stayed silent because I didn't want him to think I was a wimp.

Silver sighed and shook his head.

Around halfway through an episode, I was trembling, my Combusken keeping me warm and calm, he was one of my favourite Pokémon in my set, I didn't want him to evolve, so I didn't train him much, he didn't seem to mind. Flygon being my absolute favourite, anyway, I honestly didn't know why I was watching this; I didn't like horror much, due to the gore, and pretty much all the suspense. My attention turned back to the screen, Shion was strapped to a chair, and one of her nails was in a contraption -she seemed pretty scared of it and I didn't wanna know what it did. Silver was smiling, he was _enjoying _this, and how the hell could you like it? I clenched the sheets, I couldn't believe I was doing this, watching Higurashi in the dark, late at night, it was my worst nightmare. Then Shion screamed, and hit the handle of the contraption, a sickening crunch could be heard, as her fingernail was ripped off, that's what the thing did… I grabbed Silver's hand and squealed a bit, biting my bottom lip, letting Silver's hand go shortly after, I'd done that several times now in the episode, it didn't seem to bother him, I paid attention to the screen again, Shion was biting her lip, I didn't blame her.

"_No more! Please! I've had enough!" _She pleaded, I swear, I was gonna throw up after this. I knew why I was scared of it when I was four, and I'm still scared, ten years from then.

Then Mom called me for dinner, I didn't really want to eat it after watching that, sometimes I would say that I didn't want to eat, and Mom would keep the food in the fridge,

"Okay sweetie…Just be sure you eat it at some point…I don't want you to go hungry"

Res-ult.

I dashed back upstairs, Silver was lying on the bed, the laptop shut down.

"What's the time?" He asked tiredly, I looked at my clock, it was nine in the evening, Mom must've been running late if she made dinner just now. I closed the door for the umpteenth time today; it was hard work having Silver in the house. I wanted to ask him about his Dad, Giovanni, but it probably wouldn't go down well with him. It bugged me to no end though.

_9:15 PM_

I yawned, I had done my homework while Silver was indulging in gore and horror, because the laptop had gone on, again, I couldn't watch it _again_, it would make me ill for about a week.

"Kotone! Go to bed! And bring your laptop downstairs!" Mom called, Silver was obedient, and switched the power off, I told him to get changed while I was down there, and once I was upstairs again, he was shirtless, which I had to try _very _hard not to blush and gawk at, I told him to get in the wardrobe, where he couldn't see me, and Mom couldn't see _him_ if she walked in, I made sure of that, I pulled on some pink silken pyjama bottoms on under my skirt, then undoing the sailor uniform, and discarding it onto the chair for my desk beside me, and a blue spaghetti top which I randomly pulled out in haste to get Silver in the wardrobe. Once I had pulled that over my head I flung the wardrobe open, Silver came tumbling out with the door, flat on his face, I could hardly contain my laughter.

"Don't do that again…" Silver mumbled, I helped him up, and crawled into bed, undoing my hair and letting it flow down my shoulders, then pinging the hair band at Silver, making it hang off his nose, and inducing another giggle fit from me. I tried to keep it quiet, since Mom was still downstairs in front of the TV.

"'Night Mom!" I shouted down the stairs. Then a very tired "Goodnight honey…" echoed back. Silver crawled onto the opposite end of my bed, hiding his face under the blankets, in case…yeah, you got it.

I laid awake, on my side, hugging myself, Combusken leaning on the frame of my bed, asleep, it's orange flame-like feather droopy atop it's head, I sat up and looked at Silver, I could see the faintest streak of red hair strewn across the mattress, I crawled over to him, making sure not to wake Silver up, I uncovered his face form the ocean of blankets, looking down at him, his mouth was open a fraction, showing some of his teeth, resting on his bottom lip, his face wasn't frowning, or smirking evilly, it was cutely relaxed, his eyes sometimes twitching, I wanted to take a photo and show Hikari tomorrow, just for the hell of embarrassing him, but I was too tired, but I was too tired to do anything, I collapsed next to him, looking at his face, graced with the light from behind the blowing curtains, he turned on his side in his sleep, making our noses touch, I couldn't be bothered to move away, I just, stared, it was weird, my stomach doing flips, yet I was happy with it, and I don't know what made me do it, I shrunk under the sheets, nestling my head under the bridge of his neck. In his sleep, he must've felt me, because he hugged me closer to him, I was too tired…

I fell asleep in his arms.

**-Author's note-  
EDIT:  
Grammar improved.  
Spelling improved.**


	4. Why Are Dreams Even a Thing?

**Konnichi Wa, Hello chapter four.**

**-XxX-**

I woke up, it was cold, and there was no light heartbeat like last night, nobody was next to me, wait…

Nobody was next to me.

Silver was gone,

Left,

Or…Caught by my mom, I didn't want to think it was that. I sat up and something thin crunched under my hand. Crap, I hoped it wasn't someone's head or something. But it was a note, and on in Silver's screwy, boyish handwriting, it read:

_Kotone,_

_I found you next to me this morning, you move around a lot in your sleep. if four o' clock counts as morning, I left then. once you're ready, I'll be waiting for you and Hikari next to the bus stop, as always._

_-Silver._

I shook my head; I knew he would do this, it felt like he'd given me a one-night stand or something,

Wait,

Let's not think about it that way.

Mom, Mom…I wondered if she'd found us, then I didn't wanna go downstairs. In case she had, I wanted to find the source of the draft, and how Silver got out. Or if he got kicked out. I didn't really want an earful first thing in the morning about relationships from my mother, honestly I didn't, the annoying birds outside chirped their asses off, I wanted to swing the window open and pelt stones at them, I am _not_ a morning person. Silver had definitely left, I had to confirm it, and in case he was gonna pop out of my wardrobe. Or from under my bed, you get the general idea. I actually was scared of manuvering around my own room; I crawled over to the curtains, ready to give those birds an ass-kicking. But instead I just opened the curtains, then shielding my eyes from the light, I noticed a window was open, whaddya know I found the escape and draft at the same time! I closed the window and walked over to my wardrobe, still in ninja mode. I was awaiting the red-head to jump out at me, even though I had just confirmed his absence. I swung the wardrobe door open, cringing as it smacked against the wall behind it, I opened one eye, and felt disappointed.

Why was I disappointed? I don't know.

"Kotone! You up yet!" Mom called upstairs, she didn't seem annoyed or anything, that was good.

I yanked my uniform off the hanger, it didn't snap like I assumed it would.

And repeated the process I had gone through yesterday.

I gulped as I approached the stairs, taking one step down them, once I reached the bottom, I felt like I had just run a marathon, due to the fact I did it so slowly.

"Hey Kotone!"

Phew, she wasn't pissed.

Well…She didn't seem to be.

But sure enough, once I became face to face with her, she smirked at me and crossed her arms, her eye twitched as if she was keeping in a shout, she walked over to me and towered, I just blinked at her, I didn't really care if she found out or not at this point.

"Well well, look at that." Mom frowned at me, her eyebrows knitted together as she plucked a red hair from my neck, which I identified as one of Silver's hairs.

"I suppose this belongs to the young man you snuck into your room last night, huh? And the one you had a nice nap with too?" Crap. I hadn't ducked under the covers when I fell asleep. I winced, waiting for the scream and lecture,

"Man Kotone! You could have told me you had a friend round at our house!"

Wait, what? I looked at my mother sideways, and made an 'eh?' face.

"Aw, c'mon! You thought I wouldn't notice he was under your wardrobe?"

Ah. So she _did_ see him.

"Well, I thought you'd remember him from that morning, so…"

Mom glared at me, now she remembered him, oh yes, she did.

"YOU SLEPT WITH HIM?"

Oh. Snap.

After a massive row with Mom, I walked out with Hikari, pale-faced and in shock; I didn't feel like crying, no. I felt like screaming at the woman, she didn't listen to me, she didn't even hear anything I managed to shout at her, I had made it _very_ clear that Silver was my friend, and nothing else, I was beginning to lose my bearings.

We reached the bus stop, I hadn't managed to utter a single word directed at Hikari, she knew what had happened anyway, but in fact, I hadn't been able to say anything to anyone, once we arrived, Silver was slumped on the bench for the bus shelter, he looked up at me, then looked concerned, my bottom lip began to tremble, and my vision grew cloudy, Silver stood up.

"Kotone?"

I still stood there, my eyes now shut, I was trembling, and losing the will to keep tears back, Hikari had her arm around me, Silver started to approach me, I lost it,

"SILVER!" I shouted and tackled him, freely crying, and sobbing into his shirt, my arms hooked under his joints, my nails digging into his back. He sat there for a while and then put an arm around me in a comforting manner, I couldn't be consoled, not then, Hikari explained what triggered this, and he held me closer, and bent his head down, as if to kiss my forehead, which he obviously didn't do.

"I'm sorry Kotone; I got you into all this mess…"

I had managed to calm down a little, Hikari and Silver supported me, if Crys was on that bus, heck, I wouldn't know what to do, the bus arrived with that shriek that busses make, and we got on, I didn't smile at the driver like I usually would, I scanned my bus pass, I was keeping my head down, hiding the fact that I was close to exploding again, we slowly crept up the stairs to the upper deck, there were all the usual people, and hallelujah, no Crystal. The girls from yesterday were in groups of two and in separate places, Erika was next to Chip, the guy from yesterday, who gave me a look of concern, I just waved him off, we continued toward the back of the bus, receiving comments about my state of mind, and the condition of my face, Silver stayed with me and Hikari sat next to Cynthia, who was talking to Hikari from the moment she sat down. Silver and I made ourselves comfortable in the back, I sat on the left window seat and he sat beside me,

"Silver…" I managed to murmur "Can I stay with you today?"

Silver turned to look at me, and nodded, then looked at the floor again, he looked lost in thought, and I knew why,

"Please don't feel guilty about this, it'll blow over when I get home, you'll see."

Silver said nothing back, I had said it, but I wanted him to acknowledge me, or tell me that I had made the message clear.

"HEY GUYS!"

We both looked up to see a blonde, another blonde, and a black-haired girl, Barry, Volkner, and Candice.

Barry was leaning over us, Volkner was looking tired to an extremity, and Candice was latched onto Volkner's arm.

Wait…Candice was latching onto Volkner's arm? They were…Together?

"Hey Barry…" I replied lazily, Candice winked at me, and pressed her cheek onto Volkner's arm, the blonde just looked down at her,

"I'm _sure_ you've noticed our two _lovebirds_ by now!" Barry immaturely remarked, he had pressed the wrong button; Volkner sighed and punched the top of his head,

"Shut it, it's only been a couple of hours." He grunted at Barry.

"Dude…that hurts you know!"

"That's why I did it."

Ha. Fair enough.

Barry has this magic way of lightening my mood when I'm down, even if he's too hyperactive at times. It's like a talent. I noticed Silver hadn't said a word, must've been Barry leaning over him, Barry's tie was in his face, swaying when he moved the slightest bit. Silver pulled on it like a bell rope, strangling who it was attached to.

"Ah! Ow. Oh jeez, that _really_ hurt Silver!" Barry gagged, rubbing his neck and adjusting his tie,

"You deserved it." Volkner added from the other window seat, I bent over and Candice was sitting on his lap, with her arms around his neck, Volkner didn't seem too bothered, but then again, he wasn't doing anything in particular, suppose that was like him though. Barry sat himself next to Silver; I asked if he wanted to switch seats and he shot up like a bullet, practically shoving me out of the window seat, I sat on the other side of Barry, so I was near Candice and Volkner too. I smiled at Candice, she had always wanted to be with Volkner, and I guess he just accepted her.

"So how long has this been going on?" I asked, making conversation, Candice blushed and pushed her face on Volkner's, squishing her cheek on his, he just grunted in response and looked at her incredulously.

Candice checked her watch,

"Exactly two hours and ten minutes!"

She was taking this way too seriously, it was almost obsessive.

"Oh. How did Barry find out?"

"Um…He…" Candice blushed, her whole face was red, I didn't want to embarrass the two, but…

"He caught and recorded Candice asking me out on his phone."

Okay, that wasn't that bad.

"Yeah! You can see it too!" Barry exclaimed, pulling out his silver phone, even Silver peered over then. I didn't want to see, save them a cringe.

"Nah, I'm okay, thanks." I fake smiled at Barry; he bought it and flipped the phone screen down, then stuffed it into his pocket. Candice mouthed the word 'thanks' I knew it meant: 'Thanks for saving my ass."

Ha ha.

Lunchtime!

I had cheered up by then, and ate lunch with Hikari, Silver was keeping with me, as promised, Barry was busy annoying Volkner, and Candice was feeding him chocolate pocky sticks, of course, Volkner was too distracted to respond much.

"Hey gal!"

Gal?

Who the fuck called me _that_?

I turned around, seeing Chip behind me, I knew I recognised his voice from somewhere, a Flareon curled around his feet, I had my Grovyle next to me, it yawned too, scratching around with its feet.

"Hi, Chip" I replied, still trying to restrain my need to question my new nickname. Silver came up behind me and he was glaring at the ground,

Or Chip's feet.

I just raised my eyebrows at him.

"Wanna sit down with me?" Chip asked. The Flareon was on his shoulders now; he was tickling its chin. And it was purring contentedly. I nodded, and sat down; Silver raised an eyebrow and stalked off.

I swear to God, he didn't like Chip. Not one bit.

Chip leaned back on the bench, opening one eye and grinning ear-to-ear at me, I smiled back, Grovyle sat on the back of the wooden furniture, glaring at him somewhat. I shifted a fraction in my seat; it was an awkward silence, the kind I detested.

"No way. I'm not giving you a candy bar again."

I looked over at the daily scene between the two blonde boys, Candice was glaring at Barry and the annoyance was leaning forwards and grinning, I knew this wasn't going to end well; Candice pulled another treat out of the box and popped it into Volkner's mouth. Then he chewed it like a farmer would chew on a bit of straw or grass, with one eye open and his mouth slanted. His hands behind his head.

"Well, maybe Candice could give a stick of the biscuit stuff you're eating…?" Barry pleaded, his face pulled into a look that was meant to be sad and needy, but he couldn't pull it off quite right, it looked like it was a sort of glare, actually.

"Well, it's called pocky, and no. you can't have it." Candice said strictly and turned away, Barry's face dropped. He looked like he was about to have a childish fit, actually, that's sort of an understatement.

"B-But…Why?" Barry's eyes welled up with tears; he was still leaning over, with his hands on his sides.

Candice looked at him and her glare softened, Volkner just sighed deeply. Now _Candice _was gonna cry.

"OH BARRY! JUST TAKE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT!" Candice gushed, her hand on her chest like an awful soap-opera spoof, holding the box of the stick-like treats to Barry,

"Gee thanks Candice!" Barry returned to his normal self, took the whole packet, and shot off down campus. Candice stopped and her eyelid twitched in irritation, still in the position she gave the pocky to Barry in. Only the hand no longer contained the pink box.

"I swear…I will kill the hyper bitch someday." Candice spat, her backside collided with the bench, and she pouted with her arms crossed, she looked overly-tense and pocky-less. Volkner opened one eye and looked over at her, his hands still serving as a pillow. He leaned over and hooked his hand around her shoulders, pulling her across the bench. Candice blushed then looked up at him with mischief in her eyes, once he closed his eyes again, she leaned over and caught the protruding end of pocky from Volkner's mouth in her teeth, his eyes snapped open and looked at her, Candice yanked half of it off and chewed on it, still evilly smirking.

"…That was mine…"

My god, he spoke!

"Not anymore!" Candice grinned, swallowing her unfair share of the biscuit. The bell sounded and Candice shot up, kissed Volkner's lips and left.

That was entertaining to watch.

"Hey…She took the rest of it!"

Chip looked at me in amusement, I smiled back, and Silver returned behind me, pulling me off of the bench,

"H-Hey!" I retaliated, Silver just grunted. I waved at Chip as I was dragged away by Silver.

I looked out of my maths classroom, Lucian didn't seem to notice me at the window as much as yesterday, it was my last lesson of the day, and I was as tired as hell, I looked out of the window, it was raining again, streaking the glass with water, voices echoing around me, I felt like sleeping. I just about closed my eyes and then Silver tapped my shoulder,

"Kotone. Class has finished."

I nodded and got out of my seat while packing my things away. As usual, we walked out of the school and waited for the bus, not many people were gathered there, and it was still raining, Silver sighed and pulled me away,

"H-Hey! Where're we going?"

"To the beach."

I tried my best to look confused, the beach around Goldenrod was sandy, but it was small, nobody usually visited there. And it was _raining._ I hoped there wasn't gonna be thunder, I desperately hoped, we ran through Goldenrod and to the border near the train that would take you to Kanto, it had a small staircase that led you down to the beach, which was now near flooding state, the wind attacking my ears and stinging my cheeks. I had my hat on, so my ears were okay, my hair nearly came out of the bunches it was in, the loose streaks whipping my face, Silver still had his hand grasping my arm, we ran down the steps and Silver let go, took his coat off and sat on it, leaning against the wall behind him, he patted the spare patch of coat next to him, I gave a curt nod and sat beside him.

"So why are we at the beach?" I asked, Silver looked at me, not turning his head,

"I felt like coming here." he turned his head to look at me, "And I needed company"

I blushed, I honestly didn't know why, but something stirred inside me, it caused me to smile, he smiled back and my hat blew off my head, I attempted to catch it, but it blew into the approaching sea. I bowed my head, I had had that hat for years, it had always been too big for me, and I was just growing into it. Silver smirked and caught his hand around my waist, making me lean against him, I blushed madly, feeling my cheeks tingling, not with just the cold, but my face was getting hot.

"Don't worry about your hat; you'll get a new one." He reassured me, he didn't understand anything about my hat, and I felt stupid for mourning over my hat like it was my deceased grandmother or something.

"It's only a hat…"

Silver looked down at me again, I looked back up, returning his gaze, we both held our stares, ignoring the wind, I leaned into his direction, until I could feel his breath on my face, I didn't care about my blushing, because he was too, I leaned in a tad more until our lips met, he pretty much took it from there, he wrapped both arms around my waist, and I sat facing forward in his lap, lacing my arms around his neck and kissing him more, taking a long breath through my nose and exhaling when I couldn't hold it in anymore,

"I love you Kotone" he breathed under my lips, I said nothing,

"Kotone, are you listening to me?"

"Of course I'm listening to you Silver…"

"Kotone? KOTONE!"

My eyes snapped open,

Shit. I had fallen asleep in class, I looked around stiffly, Silver was staring at me, his cheeks a light pink and a expression that looked like I had just hit him in the face, Lucian was standing over me, I knew I was going to get a detention any minute…

"Kotone, next time you decide to sleep in my class, I'll give you a detention, I'll leave you to your little dreams when you're at home." Lucian didn't give me a detention; I wondered how much I had said in my sleep,

Well, it was enough to make Silver blush.


	5. Blarg And Other Annoying Phrases

**Konnichi Wa, Hello  
**

**Chapter Five.**

**Blarg.**

**-XxX-**

Silver still stared at me, the pink hint faded in his cheeks, but he still wouldn't loosen the grip on my attention, I knew Lucian was getting pissed at me again, I just couldn't stop staring him down, hardly even blinking, questions whizzed around my head, why did I dream about him? Did I want him to love me? What _was_ that dream, and what had I said out loud? It had just seemed too real…While I was pondering and staring Lucian threw me a look of warning, I paid attention again, occasionally looking and exchanging glances with Silver. Still blushing from the shock of waking up. I hadn't realised the time go by, and the end of school bell rang through the classroom, I didn't want to wait for Silver, I was unsure of what to say if I did. I threw everything in my bag and left without a word, I could hear Silver call me as I ran full pelt down the corridor, pushing past people bigger and shorter than me, making them curse at me, until I reached the end of the corridor, where the exit to the math building was, I ran into someone, I looked up to apologise,

But it was Crys. Smirking.

"Going somewhere?" She asked, tauntingly.

"Yeah, I need to get home." I replied harshly as I could, I tried to push past her, but one of the rosette-haired girls beside her snorted and pushed me back down on the floor, I wanted to scream for help, but Crys stood over me,

"Don't even think about it." She smirked at me, I bared my teeth at her, Silver would find me, and drag me away, like usual…wouldn't he?

"Ha! Without Silver, you're hopeless! Anyway…we need to have a nice chat outside, get up and follow us."

I did as I was told, if it was outside school, they wouldn't be heard, all of the teachers were inside marking and having meetings. Or have gone home. She led me behind a house, it was one of those Cul-de-sacs alleyways that had the wiring fence at the end, and were dark and dank, and stunk like hell. The girl with the blue loop earrings pushed me down against the wall, making me sit and freeze up, I felt scared, I shouldn't, but I did.

"Now, about Silver, listen to me, right here, right now, you're nothing to him, absolutely nothing, no matter how much you dream about him, or sneak him into your house, you will mean _nothing_. You understand that?"

I nodded, I was hugging my knees, and trying to fight back tears, biting my lip, I felt a twinge of realisation and some kind of truth at her words, but she acting as if I loved him, I had never, ever felt such things, or had I? And how did she find out about last night and yesterday was one of her followers listening in on my conversations? Crys was always trying to be alone with Silver…

"And one other thing, Silver can't save you anymore, because by the end of this week, you will tell him you hate him, and he will come to me, I _will_ have my own advances, you understand?"

My heart stopped at that. I couldn't ever tell him I hate him, because it was just a plain lie…but something was true,

I was weak and useless without him.

"A-And if I don't? Besides, y-you don't even know if I snuck him into my house!" I spoke shakily, and then winced, I shouldn't have done that.

"Then the whole school will know you use Silver, and that you're a dirty little cheater with that new guy, Chip. And we're everywhere, remember, I can see who you're talking to, and if I get close enough, I can hear it."

But I wasn't even _in love_ with Silver, it just didn't make sense, I just nodded slowly, the threesome evacuated the alley, I sat frozen against the wall, my phone rung from inside my shoulder bag, I extended a shaky hand and grabbed the phone.

_Caller- Silver._

I answered it,

"Kotone? Where are you?" Silver spoke, he sounded worried, I never thought he would be.

"I-In an alleyway…" I replied, close to bursting into tears, it was only the second day back, and I was already having this kind of trouble.

"Why the hell are you in an _alleyway?_"

"C-Crys…" I stopped, should I tell him? Suppose I should.

"What did she do _this time?_"

"She cornered me…"

I heard footsteps running up the pavement, I bit my lip again, and hugged my knees even more, I knew it was Crys, coming back to give me a beating, a red light phased next to me, and my Flygon appeared to my right, worry in its eyes, it gave a small raspy "Fly?" in question and bent it's neck down to nudge me, I shakily stroked the side of its head in reassurance, it still cooed at me, knowing my emotions. Sometimes I liked that creepy connection I had with my Pokémon.

"Kotone I'm coming, I'll find you." Silver said through the phone, I didn't reply, I dropped the phone and it made a loud clack as it hit the hard paving, I started to whimper, the tears flowing slowly.

The footsteps grew nearer and nearer. I tensed up more and more, it only sounded like one person, but I was still scared nonetheless.

"Kotone?"

It was Hikari,

"Oh my god…Kotone!" She ran over to me and called someone, I could only hear as I had my face buried in my arms,

"Silver I've found her. It's the alley closest to the school."

Soon after, Silver came running down the alley, he called my name in panic, thanked Hikari and knelt down in front of me, I lifted my head to look at him, his mercury eyes held mine and I burst into floods of tears, I felt him hug me, I knelt forward, my knees getting the rough end of the stick, they hurt from all the gravel and broken glass digging into the bare skin. I locked my arms around his neck and cried over his right shoulder,

"Call her Mom Hikari."

Oh hell no, he couldn't do that, I couldn't protest though, Flygon nuzzled me again, I heard Hikari call my Mom and tell her where we were, I cried even more, clenching my teeth and squeezing Silver more. Soon enough my Mom came running down the alley too, passers-by gazing down it and snorting as they walked, like fucking snobs.

"Kotone! My god! I'm so sorry!" My Mom sounded like _she _was going to cry, I watched her glare at Silver, and I felt like screaming at her again, because of this morning, she was on bad terms with him. I didn't want Silver to let go, but he did, and I clung onto my Mom, she didn't give off the same kind of warmth as Silver though. I could feel my Mom's head rise to look at Silver, I winced again, and she let out a long breath, whispering:

"Thank you…Silver, right?"

Silver must've nodded, he didn't say anything. Silver has now officially been cleared of all charges it seemed.

"You two…I owe everything to you, if you hadn't come, I don't know what would've happened to my Kotone…"

I smiled at this, and stood up, everyone rose with me, I wiped my eye and managed to apologise for causing so much trouble, then thanking them for being there for me, however, Crys' words stayed in my head the whole time;

"_I will have my own advances…"_

Hikari grinned at me; I managed to smile back,

"I'll take you both home, but you can stay for tea if you want, I just got it in the oven, there's _way_ too much of it." Mom suggested, Silver and Hikari nodded, Hikari called her mom to tell her that she was staying and Silver just followed us to the car.

"I see, so that's what she did…" Hikari hung her head and looked annoyed; Silver just frowned, staying silent, while deep in thought. We were sitting on the carpet of my room, we had had dinner, Hikari was waiting for her Mom to pick her up, Silver hadn't called his Dad, I reckoned he had had another argument with him; I didn't want to raise the subject, due to my personal experiences with him. His dad was a sensitive subject.

"Don't tell anyone you hate them, it's just a plain lie. But something had me thinking…" Silver broke the fragile silence,

"What is it?" I replied in question

"Does the whole of our year think we're together?"

He had a point, Crys had never said anything about telling the school we were together, and did they assume that already?

"Shit…" I managed to say, screwing up my face,

"Hikari! Your Mom's here! Come downstairs honey!" my mom called up the staircase, Hikari said her goodbyes, hugged me, smiled at Silver, and ran downstairs, making a thump as she jumped at the end, then I felt insecure, I still hadn't forgotten the dream I had, Silver hadn't brought it up, but it was killing me, Hikari was the only thing that stopped the subject from releasing itself.

"We can make this work to our advantage; it will take a _lot_ of secrecy though." Silver carried on, I braced myself, awaiting the horrific idea,

"Wha-What is it?"

"A fake relationship."

My eyes widened at the idea, it wasn't a dream this time, and he _wanted _to do this,

"You-You want to do this?" I exclaimed, looking at him incredulously,

"Not particularly, you got any better ideas?"

I had none. I had to go through with this; I didn't want Crys to win, so I had to fight back!

"Then…let's do this…" I gulped, this was gonna be one hell of a few months,

"I'll sleep over tonight, if your Mom will allow it, just say that you still aren't over what happened-" and I wasn't, by the way "-and she might soften up, if not, we'll just start tomorrow."

Whoa, whoa, slow down here!

"Start what?" I asked, nearly shouted, he was making this sound like mission impossible.

"Practicing."

"Say what?" I asked eyes wide and backing away from him. Very slowly I might add. This meant I would have to practice making out and being all cuddly and fluffy with him and stuff like that? No-fucking-way.

"You heard me. If you don't get it, I can give you an explanation." I jolted forwards and smacked him on the topside of his head.

"No. an explanation is not what I need right now, thanks." I spat, Silver rubbed his head and scowled at me.

"Well if you get it, let's start."

I blushed; my mind began developing images that I don't particularly want to share.

"What with? Don't say hugging me because I've done that before." I harrumphed and turned away, soon after I heard him sigh and some movement, then felt a sharp sting on the nape of my neck that made me blush like hell,

"OUCH? WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?"

"Something I haven't done before."

My eye twitched in frustration, I felt like hitting him again but I couldn't. He was being a smart ass.

"You bit me! I swear to God, you must be half vampire or something!" He chuckled at this, I just rubbed my neck; I could feel the mark his teeth gave me.

"If I was half vampire I reckon I'd know about it. Kotone, you can't fight this, you already agreed to it for Christ's sake."

I still stayed with my back to him, my hand still covering my bite wound. After a few minutes of silence I turned around and crawled over to him, looking right at him the whole time,

"Kotone?"

I kept on crawling until he was backed up against my bed frame, I didn't talk, I wanted to get it over and done with, quickly too. I strode on all-fours like a cat, growing closer and closer until my forehead was pressed against his, he was staring wide-eyed at me, his face flushed, nearly as red as his hair, I shut my eyes, and held my breath, and mentally prepared myself…

I couldn't do this, it didn't feel right, I just collapsed into his chest, breathing heavily from where I had held my sighs for so long, he sunk down until he was laying onto the floor, I stayed laying sideways where he couldn't see my face,

"And you complain about me doing things…" He breathed, I just nodded, as red as he was, I heard his heartbeat through the white shirt he was wearing, it sounded like some kind of eight-o-eight drum,

"This is impossible…we can't do this at all…" I sighed out, the words fading into the air, it was impossible; I would just have to quit it,

"How else are we gonna-"

"Shut up-" I cut him off, he was obedient, "- I'll just have to shoulder it, Crys was pretty darn stupid, I'm hardly ever near Chip, and I don't wanna panic anytime soon, so she's gonna see no movement from me. And you don't have to comply to her '_advances' _either"

"She probably just did it in case I got too close to you"

I blushed a bit at what he meant,

"Yeah and there's no way I'm going to say that I hate you…being honest, I don't think anyone will believe it anyway…" I sat upright and leant back onto him like a pillow, looking up at the ceiling, "…she just did it outta desperation."

Then it clicked, I was the stronger one, she was weak, I bet if I got her without her followers, she'd just be no scarier than a kitten, and she did this out of pure panic of losing her crush.

"Do you still want me to stick around?" He asked, I nodded,

"I'll ask Mom about it, you'll need to get your stuff from your own place though." He nodded again.

Later on, Mom had agreed to letting Silver stay, and, without realising, I hugged him as he left to retrieve his things from his own house, I let him go as he walked out and closed the door, and then turned my attention to Mom, who was grinning at me deviously,

"I swear Kiddo; you're seriously getting too close to him."

I glared at her, blushing all the while, not this _again_.

"He's just my friend. Okay?"

Mom laughed heartily, then looked at me again, this time sighing loudly,

"In time, I'm sure he won't be."

I was seriously getting annoyed; this woman just didn't get the message.

"Well, you can say 'I-told-you-so' if that happens." I glared at her again and stalked off,

"I used to hug your Dad like you hug him; it's different from the normal hug y'know?"

"No Mom. I don't. And don't mention Dad, it brings back sad memories." so now she was observing the way I _hug_ people?

"Kotone, I know you love him."

"I don't! How many times!"

She shut up then, I went upstairs and slammed my door shut, no way was she gonna judge me like that, soon after, the doorbell sounded, and I could hear Mom greet Silver, I was waiting for him to walk upstairs, but he didn't, I needed to investigate, I crept out of my room, and crawled over to the top of the grey-carpeted staircase, I tried not to make noise as I tiptoed down to the doorway, I heard Mom talking to Silver, this wasn't good, not good at all, I decided to listen in,

"-and if you do…please take care of her, her Dad gave her enough heartbreak, and Crys _really_ doesn't help it…I hate that girl and her parents, always making fun of her, anyway, please, Silver, I know you're really close to her…" Mom spoke mid-sentence, I heard him start to walk out and go near the staircase, I ungracefully high-tailed it up the stairs, making them creak and groan under my weight,

"Shut up! I know I'm heavy but shut the hell up!" Oh great, now I was talking to my own staircase. I was definitely losing it now,

"Why're you talking to stairs? You get weirder by the minute…"

Oh shit. He not only caught me eavesdropping on Mom, but talking to inanimate objects too.

"Hi Silver." Was the only thing I could say, frozen in a running stance. Then I became animate again, and darted up the rest of the stairs, he chuckled and muttered something under his breath, then joined me in my room, where I was in a world of bunnies and rainbows,

Uh, yeah, right.

"So I'm guessing you heard your Mom talking to me." He supposed, I froze and choked on air, managing to force out words in raspy tones,

"Y-yeah I did, she gave me the whole thing when you left, and she's a retard like that, sorry."

"It's okay. I understand why she said it…we're pretty close friends and all."

"So…you sleep in my bed again?"

"Looks that way."

The next morning, I found him sitting on my desk chair, twirling around on it like a merry go round, ready to leave. We had slept top and tail, and I was more tired than when people wake at four o clock in the morning, I had a good mind to fall asleep again, but alas, I had to wake up, Silver cleared off when I dressed myself, and Hikari picked me and Silver up, looking at the boy sideways when he answered the door instead of me, but she never said anything. Mom winked at me and I stuck my tongue out at her, then we continued on to the bus stop. I was tense, Crys was going to say something, I knew it, I sat on the bus shelter bench, looking down at my thumbs and making them wrestle each other, then I heard about three sets of running footsteps approach us, I looked up and Barry was leaning over and grinning at me, like he would to Volkner, I hoped that someone wouldn't nudge him the tiniest bit, It would send him towards me and you can guess the rest.

"Barry…what're you doing?" I asked slowly in case he didn't get the message, he didn't.

"Hi. Blarg."

"Eh? Say what?"

"Blarg."

That was random, I screwed up my face, Barry still grinned, I received a text from Candice, who was sitting on the opposite side of the bench, and it read:

_If he says Blarg to you, blame Volkner. :)_

I didn't get it, but it must've been some kind of dare. Silver looked as if he was going to punch Barry, Barry repeated the word to Silver, who then punched him in the jaw... Ow.

"You idiot. Go bother someone else."

Barry pointed at him, shouted 'Blarg' and ran off to Volkner, who was sitting next to Candice (again) I was wondering if Candice forced him into this kind of thing, if so…poor guy.

"Bro Volkner! He punched me for saying Blarg!"

"Get over it." Volkner replied to Barry, receiving yet another pocky stick from Candice, who was watching Barry's hands like a hawk, holding the box from his line of sight.

"But you _told_ me to say _Blarg!_" Barry complained, Volkner cocked an eyebrow at him, then he smirked and pulled out a king size bar of chocolate from his blazer pocket, Barry's eyes immediately lit up, observing the size in awe, he reached out but then the precious candy disappeared into the blonde's pocket again, making Barry pout.

"You've got to keep saying Blarg."

Barry walked away in a huff,

"Can't we shorten it to _half_ a day?"

"No. unless you don't want the candy, I can have half-"

"NYA! PLEASE! NO!"

"Say it to people all day then."

Candice looked concerned for her boyfriend, then sighed, once he swallowed the last of his biscuit, she thrust another one at him, which he stared wide-eyed at, but caught it with his teeth anyway. Barry looked peeved and started pacing up and down, looking as if he was about to burst.

"Volkner…" I started, shifting closer to him "…Why does he have to say Blarg?" Silver immediately followed, he was like a dog sometimes. Honestly.

"Gets him outta my hair…and I can get rid of this ridiculous bar of fucking massive chocolate I got for my birthday last year."

Yeah Volkner, as if nothing could get stuck in your hair with the ridiculous amount of gel you spike it with.

"Volkner…what does your hair look like without gel?"

"I don't gel it."

God Damn it. Wait….No. Fucking. Way.

He doesn't gel it? That's impossible. Freaking impossible. There is no way that Volkner doesn't gel his overly-and-unnaturally-spiky hair. I detest the fact that he doesn't. 'I'm-Volkner-and-I-don't-gel-my-hair' My ASS!

"Fuck really?"

"God…just touch it if you don't believe me."

And I did, this was the moment of truth people. Funnily enough, I found myself touching up Volkner's hair and pissing Candice off big time for about five minutes, after I just gave a 'humph' and shuffled back to Silver, who looked at me as if I was some deranged retard.

Hallelujah, the bus arrived!

Blarg.


	6. Psychological Trauma: The Game

**Konnichi wa, Hello Chapter Six  
-XxX-**

_It's been two months since then…since Crys said those things to me…_

As expected, during that tense week, Crys had said nothing, she had remained silent, and shot me venomous looks whenever she saw me, she never spread the rumour, and everything was okay, Barry managed that 'Blarg' marathon, and won the bar of chocolate. Making him insanely happy. Volkner and Candice were always indulging in Pocky, at lunchtime, always being bugged by Barry, without fail. Chip was always that nice guy that lets me use his iPod, Erika showing some interest in the tanned boy, like when he grins at her, she blushes insanely and runs off with her Vileplume skipping after her, Chip however, just gets confused, I don't blame him, he doesn't know Erika. Cynthia and Riley were hanging out more, Riley's Lucario always reluctant to be with the blonde's.

…Me and Silver? We were never happier, Crys still hadn't given up, but he had learnt that he didn't need to protect me from her anymore, I could sort of fend for myself, in a way, which usually resulted in her making a comment and stalking off with the pinkettes. Volkner, Candice, Erika, Riley, Chip, Hikari, Cynthia, Marley, Silver and I had been invited to Barry's fifteenth birthday party, which was held in his house, it was in Violet city, we could all come. But it was never like anything I had done before.

Ever.

Silver knocked for me that night, he was dressed in some ripped denim jeans, with a loose stud belt tied around his waist. A black T-shirt with a shade-red checked hooded shirt over the top, the checked shirt was unbuttoned, and my Mother hadn't given up on the whole 'yes, I know you love Silver' thing. So when she saw him outside she giggled, I glared at her, I had let my hair down, and ditched my hat, pretty much skimmed some of my Mom's light pink lip gloss over my lower lip, not caring much about my face, I made an effort with my short skirt, which was a navy blue, and a black spaghetti top underneath a pink hooded jumper, on my wrist, a Pandora bracelet adorned with peace symbols and random things like that on it, I had chosen that bracelet because it had an Eevee charm on it, one of my favourite Pokémon. I answered the door and he looked me up and down, I did the same to him, Mom laughed in a held-back snort, I hit her behind the door and she shut up,

"Let's go."

Violet city was amazingly lit, Barry's house was in the middle of the town, it had no decorations on it, which was strange, I carried his present under my arm, which was a ridiculously sized bar of chocolate, I was sure he'd be happy, despite the fact he would have had millions of the things already from his parents. As we approached the door, I could feel vibrations of thumping music, which was a rock song, sounded like Linkin Park, I wasn't too sure though, I had never heard the song before. Balloons lined the inside of the window, and I could see Barry performing a handstand on his lounge room rug, then flopping over and nearly succeeding in crushing a vase with red roses in it, then the sound of laughter came about as he looked at it sheepishly, this was going to be complete mayhem. I could feel it. We approached the door and Silver rung the silver doorbell, Barry travelled from the lounge to the doorway in around five seconds flat, it was amazing, really.

"Kotone! Silver! Come in! Everyone's here!"

Oh great, we were last. We entered and I noticed that his parents weren't there, and I also noticed the array of parcels and envelopes addressed to him, most of them either box-shaped or looked like candy bars. I set mine down and Silver set his on the top of the ever-growing pile, Barry shot off into the lounge and we followed, Chip was now the star of the show, he had the traditional kind of 'American street gang' look going on, but I have to say,

He was an awesome break dancer.

I looked at the large black stereo speakers and an album on top of it, bouncing up and down, I looked over at it,

I was right, Linkin Park, their new album: A thousand suns. The music pounded through me in waves, like an electrical surge,

"Oi!" Barry hollered over the music "Who wants to play Seven Minutes in Heaven!"

There was an eruption of yeses and cheers around the room, save for Volkner, dressed in a blue jacket, with gold/yellow circles trailing up the sides, he just looked pained. Barry turned the music off and everyone collapsed onto either a chair or the three-seater couch.

"I think _Barry_ should go first, since he's the birthday guy!" Chip suggested, the whole room nodded and Barry grinned,

"Okie-Dokie then! Girls move to another room! Enter through the door 'round the other side, where the game room is!" Barry grinned again and shot off into the next room, which was darkened. Because I am a girl, I fled into the hallway with the other females, then into a small room which was packed with video games for every console thinkable, and another door to the right, which led to the same room that Barry was in. once we all stood and the door shut, all eyes fell on Hikari.

"Oh Hell no! No way!"

No one averted their steely gaze.

"…"

Silence and Hikari sweat dropped,

"…Fine…"

She fled into the darkened room, and we slammed the door behind her, everyone erupted in giggles and laughs, thinking about what they would do in there, if you don't know this game, you have to spend seven minutes in a dark room where you can't see anything, with a member of the opposite sex, and in the room you have to do…_things. _You can't speak either, adds to the 'fun.' Soon, we heard a thump, either:

1)- They were making out.

2)- Someone just tripped.

I'd bet on the latter. Hikari wouldn't do the first. I had no idea what was placed in that dark room, but I was certain something would get smashed by the end of this party. In that room of course, but it was highly likely anywhere else.

"Okay! You guys! Seven minutes are up!" someone called through the opposite door, and switched the lights on.

"Hikari!" Barry's voice erupted through the wall and the whole room burst into a fit of giggles. There was a lot of shuffling noises and Hikari ran out of the door blushing like there was no tomorrow.

"I hate you all now." She joked, but her face was deadly serious. The silence lingered and a door slammed around the other side, then…

Oh hell no. no. no. no.

All the eyes in the room turn to me,

"No! There's no way-!" I protested, Hikari cut me off

"Oh Kotone…scared that Silver's behind that door?"

"What? No!"

"Then what're you waiting for?"

I was forced into the room, in addition, darkness overcame the room, as the door slammed shut. I was alienated, it was pretty darn spooky too, and in the dark with someone you don't know the identity of, not on my 'To-do' list being perfectly honest. I decided I had to move,

Thud.

Crap. Barry, if you had a Skitty, I just flattened it.

"Ow…" I flinched, I landed on a leg, I shot up from the ground, failing because I just flopped back over as if a rake had just hit me in the face. This time landing face-first on the poor soul's chest.

"Sorry…I'm a bit clumsy…"

"I know you are."

And shortly after speaking, Mysterious Person pulled me into a kiss, I blushed insanely, and wanted to escape, but the guy held me in an embrace tightly, I gave in, and kissed back, wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. He had a firm grip on me, and his lips were stiffer than mine, but he was a guy, so I let him off on that, it fit well with my own kiss, I was becoming bound to him. While I was being so close, I decided to find out who this guy was, my hands travelled shakily behind his pinned shoulders, he was wearing a jumper, which felt like a hoodie, his neck was warm against my seemingly cold hands, and his hair was long, and slick, then I winced as he bit down on my lower lip, I didn't open my mouth, too young for _that_ kind of stuff, sorry mate. My hands were still behind his head, and what felt like a ribbon of some sort came into contact with my hand, then I knew, and the lights came on. I opened my eyes to meet azure copies, once I explored with my vision, the boy had an off-white hooded jumper on, and had tanned skin, with now untied black hair, grinning up at me sheepishly.

"Chip?" I exclaimed, he didn't seem too surprised, I pushed on the floor so I hovered over him, then lifted my head to see a rather peeved Silver standing with his back against the door-frame.

After that episode, Candice and Volkner just 'happened' to go in at the same time, Erika refused and hid under a table when nobody else would go into the room, but then, it was Marley's turn.

"I'm going in." She announced, we all made way for her, she had her hair down, wearing a white blouse and tartan short-skirt, her charcoal hair flowing behind her. Once she entered, she door slammed shut after her. Then it hit me.

If I got Chip, then who would get Silver?

Hm, I'll let you guess.

After seven minutes Marley strode out in a self-praising way that made you think, 'why isn't she blushing or something?'

Truth was, she's holding it in. making a _very_ big effort to do so. I peeked around the gap in the door, Silver was sitting on the couch I must've tripped over, with his face in his hands. He slowly got up and I saw a blush across his face,

Case closed, Marley got Silver.

"Thanks for coming!" Barry shouted after us, I waved and Silver carried on walking, I shyly walked behind him, he seemed annoyed with me, his atmosphere dangerous and spiteful.

"What's wrong with you? You seem pissed off."

He stopped and muttered something incoherent,

"I'm not." He spoke slowly and in denial. I noticed his fists were curled up into balls, he wouldn't look me in the eye, and had pulled his hood up over his head so I couldn't see his face from the angle I was facing. As he started to walk forwards, I gripped his hand and pulled him back,

"Yes you are."

Silver sighed and turned to face me, catching me in a stare-down contest. He looked away again and denied.

"Look me in the eye and say that."

He barely looked at me but eventually turned his gaze. He frowned and shut his eyes.

"Well?" I grew impatient, looking at his every move, I still gripped his hand, in case he made a run for it.

He turned to walk again, then my mind clicked, and gave me the answer, ha. Silver, I know you too well.

"You're jealous of Chip." I spoke smugly with a smirk set into my face, Silver stopped and turned around immediately, and giving me a glare he's never given anyone before. I then let go of him and started to play with my hair, twirling a lock around my finger, my face dropping in the happy features I had just thirty seconds ago.

"I guess that was too much…" I murmured, looking down at the black pavement, only lit with the reflections of streetlamps. It must've been raining that evening. I looked up again, he was getting closer to me, every step he took, my heart beat that much faster, his eyes had an expression that was almost hypnotising, his hands in his pockets, he stopped once he was as close as our feet touching, I gulped and looked up further, realising how much taller he was in height compared to me,

"Wha-what are you doing?"

He never replied, he continued to stare down at me, neutral-faced, my breathing began to be heavy, my eyes flicking around, paying close attention to his hands. I wanted to shrink down to what seemed like a dot, a speck. Anything abnormally small. He then advanced on me, taking my face in his gloved hands, bringing it dangerously close to his own, I started to ventilate in pants, a small blush creeping around my face, he leaned forwards and I shut my eyes tightly, this wasn't right…

"Silver…what're you…doing?" I spoke slowly, sealing my lips until he would speak, he didn't. Silver let go of my cheeks and I fell backwards, I nearly hit the paving until he caught me, holding me close to him, I smiled and held him back, I laughed, nudging his hood off his head,

"Somehow…that's typical of you…Silver…"

**-XxX-**

"So, we're at your house now…"

"Yep."

"…Bye?"

Silver and I stood under my porch, it was a long walk home, because I had left my bus pass in Barry's house. The dim security light flickered, and the curtains weren't open, he was looking for an answer I couldn't think of at that moment, so he would just have to live without what he wanted.

"Thank you…Silver."

I stood on the tips of my toes, and lightly pecked him on the cheek, he stiffened and a large blush spread across his cheeks. I giggled and said my goodbyes, then turned to enter the house as he left New Bark, wandering off to wherever he lived…

Where _did_ he live?

"Silver!" I ran up to him, he turned around as I skidded to a halt at his feet.

"You can come in…if you want to, that is."

"Sleeping over again? Dad wouldn't want me near him anyways…"

"Depends." Mom then called from over the town, I cringed and ran back, Silver casually following me. Looks like he was staying after all.

We shut the door behind us, I then realised how tired I was, I sat next to Silver on the couch facing the TV, my eyes were heavy, and I stretched my whole body across the couch, kicking my shoes off and watching them drop onto the floor, Silver did the same, and let me rest on him, he was warmer than I was, I then found myself dozing, still able to hear voices, and movements, but asleep and unmoving, I heard Mom's footsteps creep around the couch, I didn't want to open my eyes, I wanted to listen in.

"Is she asleep?"

Silver must've nodded, Mom hummed, the kind of hum when you smile warmly.

"Silver, it's been two months since I've seen you. The last time I saw you were when Crystal said those horrible things to her and you stayed overnight."

"I know…She's been fine though, Crys hasn't really said anything to her."

"That's not what I wanted to talk about"

Oh god…not _again_

"Then what is it?"

Mom hummed again.

"I think…she loves you."

"Really?"

Way to go Silver, draw more hell from Satan's messenger.

"Uh-Huh. She acts…_differently_ around you, if you know what I mean."

"I suppose…"

"You're tired aren't you?"

"Yeah…" Silver yawned

"I see…" Mom laughed "…I'll let you sleep then, 'night!" Mom fled up the stairs, turning the lights off as she did so, Silver's head flopped to one side, rested on mine, and he'd fallen asleep too. I laughed in my head, because I knew Mom would never give up, and right now,

She had a chance of winning her bet.

**-XxX-**

"Kotone…it's eleven in the morning and you've made my leg go numb."

I woke up, barely, I tried to remember why green leather was pressed against my face, and the thing I was sleeping on was breathing… then I was drifting…drifting….slowly…

"Wake up"

"Holy shit!" I shouted too loud for Mom's liking, I then woke up and my head shot up too, colliding with Silver's nose. I cringed and turned around slowly.

"S-Sorry, Silver…"

Silver rubbed his nose and scowled at me.

"Kotone! There's something I want you to look at, it came in the post this morning!"

I got off Silver, which caused him great pain, I saw he tried to hold in a wail.

"What is it…?"

"The annual camping trip to Sinnoh's lakes!"

Oh crap, now I _knew _this year would be hell, the camping trip was sleeping in tents, in Sinnoh or some other region, next to a mountain or a lake, I'd been once before, Barry had gone sleepwalking in the night and destroyed Silver and Volkner's tent, it had rained, Barry had claimed to see the legendary Mespirit, and we all never believed him, Candice fell in the lake itself and kicked a Magikarp, causing a very angry Gyarados to chase after her in the water, an Ariados had fallen from a tree onto Crys' head, making her scream and run in circles, I actually laughed at that…you get the idea of what goes on. And it was going to happen again, this year, but this time, everything would change.


	7. Camp Valour: A Test of Mental Strength

**Konnichi Wa, Hello Chapter Seven.  
-XxX-**

A week after Barry's party, a _lot_ of rumours started, mainly about me and Chip, and the further they went, the more exaggerated they got, one of them I heard went like this:

"Oh my god! Did you hear that Silver found Kotone and that guy Chip in the janitors closet making out?"

"Yeah! Apparently Kotone was shirtless!"

You see, that's what happens in my school, _every_ rumour gets exaggerated, I don't mind though, I know the truth and so does he, it all comes down to that. But all was well, I had applied for the camping trip, so Mom wouldn't go on about her theory all the time, she was _so_ determined.

"Hikari get on! Flygon isn't going to kill you!"

"How do you know that? It's massive! I swear!"

I sighed, Silver said he could make his own way to the campsite in Sinnoh by himself, so I took Hikari, forgetting that she's scared of flying. We were next to my house, in the middle of town, everyone looked at us in confusion as they walked by,

"Look, Hikari, if you hold onto me, you'll be fine! Besides, Flygon gets us there in a flash!"

I boarded Flygon, making him coo at me, I stroked his neck, reassuring him.

"…Fine, but I'll sue you if I fall off…"

I sighed again, my head would hurt after this two-hour long flying trip…Hikari clambered onto Flygon, making him grunt, and Hikari squealed.

"Bye honey! You got all your stuff?" well duh. Mom has to give me the whole lecture before I leave. And inside she got all emotional saying that she'll miss me for the week that I'm gone, etcetera. Seriously, my Mom needs to shut up after a while. It's getting annoying.

"Yes mother, I have everything, and Hikari does too." I said with included sarcasm, Mom waved goodbye as Flygon took off, Hikari screamed and I winced, telling Flygon to go as fast as it could.

We arrived at camp, Hikari slid off and landed on the ground with a thud, we were at Lake Valour, home to the spirit Azelf, we were also next to a hotel, and a very big group of lakeshore hotels too, was this torture? Hikari scrambled onto her feet, and pointed at me accusingly

"That's the last time I'm flying on that…that…_thing!_" She shouted, Flygon glared at her and folded its wings up, I thanked it and sent it back into the red ball it lived in. I had gotten off previously, of course.

"OBJECTION!" Barry shouted from one of the groups pitching the tents, his speech aimed at Hikari, who was still pointing at what was now thin air,

"WHAT THE HELL YOU GEEK? YOU PLAY THAT GAME!" Hikari screeched at him, ticked off immensely.

"Why yes, yes I do" Barry grinned as if to mock her. Hikari then ground her teeth and threw her (zipped up) bag to one side, cracking her knuckles on her palms. Narrowing her eyes and tossing her navy-blue hair to flow down her back, if I were Barry, I would run now.

"I'll kill you smart ass!" Hikari screamed and ran up to Barry in a speed I don't even think _he_ could muster. Barry laughed and ran around the tent, then after a few laps, he tripped over one of the tent ropes, landing on his face, everyone laughed as Hikari fell on top of him, simply because Volkner stuck his foot out as she ran past.

"I. Hate. You." Hikari spat at the blonde underneath her, I moved closer, she was blushing and so was Barry, she seemed aware of it, but she punched him lightly on the topside of his head anyway, struggling to get up again, Hikari tuned out the snickers and giggles surrounding her, I then sighed and retrieved Hikari's bag, then staggered over to the pile of belongings and dumped my bag and hers there. I heard a light thud of landing, I didn't need to turn around, I knew who was behind me.

"Kotone."

"Silver."

Simple greeting, it was tense lately, he found out about the rumours and thought Chip had started them, I had an argument with Silver, over that fact, it involved a lot of shouting and passers-by laughing at us, some of the girls from out year gasping as if we were getting married or something. In the argument I sided with Chip, of course, Silver didn't seem to take it well. He ended up sulking and walking away while I ran over to Chip, nearly in tears, Silver seemed to not forget it, he tried to stare me down with a glare that he had never given me before, I felt like hitting him until he bled or something.

"Hey Kotone!"

Saved by the tan guy in shorts.

"Hey Chip!" I ran over an hugged him, leaving Silver standing there watching us, Chip twirled me around twice and then set me down, I grinned up at him, he gave an equally wide grin back, I was happy for what seemed like forever, just smiling up at him, he then grabbed my hand,

"Wanna pitch a tent?"

"Sure thing!" I happily replied, he dragged me off to an unfinished tent, Lucian was sauntering around the groups of teens, as more and more arrived, either on Pokémon or with their mothers. Sinnoh could either be reached by boat, or take a train to Kanto and take another from there, trains travelled over water. At least a two to three hour trip, whatever option you decided to go on, I bet some parents made it a nice excuse for a week holiday in Sinnoh.

Chip started to feed poles through the flat piece of waterproof cloth on the ground, I had to make sure they didn't get stuck, which happened numerous times, and were difficult to un-stick, he had to help with a lot of it then we tried to stand the tent up and attach the guy ropes, Barry thought it'd be funny if he went into the unfinished tent while we were working on it, which resulted in a tent collapsing on top of him, Barry crawled out and walked off once it did. Soon we had a nice, round blue tent, which had two rooms, two doors, one for each room, and a small middle space, the two rooms could just about fit three people, side by side. I crawled into one of the rooms, Chip followed me in, it was cosy, and stuffy, bugs had already started to crawl over the middle space roof, I leaned over and zipped the room up, then falling back onto the wall of the tent next to Chip, hugging my knees.

"Why isn't Silver with ya?" Chip questioned, I froze up at the guy's name,

"We…We had an argument."

"What about?"

"You."

Chip shifted a bit and looked away,

"Don't worry, it's only about what happened at the party."

Chip relaxed, I looked down at the floor. Peering over at the black leather boots I had managed to cake in dirty dust.

"I heard those rumours too, bit stupid really, can't believe anyone actually believes them."

I agreed with him, he had the exact same views as I did.

"Oi. Lucian's called us all over, get out."

Nice way to walk in on us, Silver.

I walked out with Chip, the whole group was here, unfortunately the group also consisted of Crys, standing next to Silver as soon as he walked back over, I didn't care, I would _never_ care about that bitch and her little girly man. I giggled at the mental insult I directed at Silver under my breath, then turned my attention to Lucian, who was standing at the front of the crowd with Brawly, Brawly started to speak to us,

"Since this trip is about working as a team, you are all going to be on your own from here…" Masses of talk and chatter erupted at the sheer thought of what we could do without supervision, I thought that I could kick Crys' ass without anyone seeing…that sounded really cool, actually.

"Silence!" Lucian roared over the conversations. The hubbub slowly died.

"-now, Lucian and I will be staying in the Valour hotel, just around the corner from here, if there are any emergencies, or problems, send a fast Pokémon with a note, addressed to either me or Lucian, you can do what you want, but you cannot go further than the beach, or past the lake, any questions?" Brawly finished, nobody raised their hand, or spoke,

"I guess we can leave you now, everything you need to do is explained in this"- Brawly held up a plastic folder with numerous pieces of paper in-"-good luck!"

Brawly and Lucian left, Marley snatched the folder away from whoever was holding it, she read through the pieces, then bellowed in the loudest voice she could muster:

"Right! The tents hold six people! The roommates are on this piece of paper and are as follows:"

Everyone started to talk again, Marley shouted at them to shut up, they were obedient.

"In tent one, the tent closest to the lake! Hibiki, Crystal, Hikari, Erika, Volkner, and Riley. Get your stuff and unpack!"

Marley was demanding as hell, everyone complied with her commands as if she was the Queen of England or something.

"Next! Tent two! The one next to tent one! Chip, Kotone, Silver, Candice, Cynthia, and myself." That was that. There wasn't as many of us this year, so we only needed two tents, and I was stuck with both Chip _and_ Silver. This was gonna be hell, one week of pure hell.

It turned out that Silver and Chip got stuck either side of me, and the three other girls nicked the other room of the tent. I was not happy.

Not. Happy.

Marley sent me, Barry, Silver and Chip to get firewood from the forest opposite the lake, I was stuck in between Silver and Chip, Barry was busy making faces at Volkner behind his back, and when Volkner turned Barry would act all casual. I just picked the odd random stick up, not caring if it was damp or not,

"Kotone! Hey! Kotone!" Barry whispered very loudly to grab my attention, I looked his way, and he was walking dangerously close to Volkner while holding a small, thin twig. This didn't look good. Barry grinned and reached over the top of Volkner's head, dragging the twig lightly over Volkner's hair, he then hastily pulled it back, Volkner felt around the top of his head in confusion and shrugged, I giggled, it _was_ pretty funny, what else was funny was the fact that Barry was gonna get his ass kicked just about…

"You fucking moron!"

Thud.

…now. Wow, just now, in one swift move, Volkner had just got his leg up insanely high and kicked Barry in the face, then pinning Barry down with his head under Volkner's foot. Blimey. I've _never_ seen that before. Ever.

"I was just playing around!"

"I know. It's pissing me off."

Barry made a face as Volkner released him, then as he scrambled to his feet making a hand gesture involving his middle finger directed at the back of Volkner's head. I just watched the two, laughing my ass off. Suddenly I was separated from the group, away from the forest path, being pulled through autumn leaves, twigs and brambles until I was in a completely different path, I fell on top of someone, A.K.A- the person that pulled me here, I shook my head and looked down, I nearly screamed.

"Silver? What the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked incredulously.

"Seriously, all I see you do is fall on top of people."

"That's not the answer I was looking for!"

"I. Don't. Care."

"Why'd you drag me here anyway?"

"I needed to talk to you"

"Oh yeah, because _this_ is the time to _finally_ talk to me!"

"Yes it is!"

"Now they'll look for us, and Chip will get all worried, and-" He placed a finger on my lips and looked up, I thrashed about on top of him and made as much noise as I could. He just shushed me again, I gave up and looked at him in disgust. Then I bit down on his finger as hard as I could, make him wince and pull it back immediately. He winced and seethed, shooting me a poisonous glare.

" I was checking to see if they're gone. Plus, don't talk about that dickwad in front of me." Silver insulted Chip with a tone that made 'Chip' sound like a forbidden word. I was beginning to get pissed, real pissed too.

I pounded my fist on him as forcefully as I muster, he coughed as it collided with his chest, I stood up, and so did he, I walked up to him and poked him in the chest, exactly where I had hit him.

"Don't call him that. You don't know him."

"Sure, he literally molested you."

That, was when he crossed the line. I opened my mouth to speak, but then he lurched forward and forcefully planted his lips on my own, forcing me back against the tree behind me, this wasn't like the dream I had once upon a time in math class, this was real.

And despite all the hate I felt for him around ten seconds ago…

I loved it.

He put both hands on the tree I was backed up on, placed either side of my head, I laced both arms to lock around his neck, then claw at his hair.

Wait…what the hell was I doing?

My eyes snapped open and pushed him off. He looked at me in confusion, I raced through the trees, only for him to catch up to me, and grabbing my hand, making me trip over. I struggled to get up, so I stayed on the ground, damp leaves and twigs cracking and crunching underneath me. I could see him towering over me, his feet obscured by the knees of my skinny jeans,

"What the _hell_ do you think you're playing at?"

"It shut you up."

I kicked his shin. He fell over.

"And you talk about _Chip_ molesting me! Jeez Silver, I really hate you at the moment!"

"Well you reacted."

"Of course I reacted! You fucking _kissed_ me!"

Silver knelt down beside me, I turned away from him, in case he would begin to assault me, instead he stole my puffy balloon hat,

"What the hell?" I complained. He smirked and stood up again. I successfully followed his motion, desperately trying to seize the hat, he grabbed my arms and leaned over me, still holding the hat clasped in his fingers.

"You don't get this back until you apologise."

"For _what? What _do I have to apologise for! You're the one calling the shots here Mr Big Guy!"

"…"

I smirked and gave him a devilish grin,

"Exactly. Now give me back the hat."

**-XxX-**

Silver and I returned at dusk, also returning with a whole bag full of firewood, Marley commended us for our efforts and I snatched my hat back from Silver, once I had sat down on the damp grass, Chip asked where we went, I said we wondered off, he obviously didn't completely buy it, but took the subject no further, Marley went into the small wooden hut backed up against the surround of trees obscuring the lake, and she returned with rich tea biscuits, extra-large cocktail sticks and marsh mellows, the ingredients for marsh mellow smores. We prepared a fire and Barry ran around it, saying the wind would enlarge the flame, I didn't believe him, until he succeeded. Then I felt like applauding him or something. Then the small fire depleted,

"Ha! Fat lot of help you are!" Hikari shouted over the crowd, Barry pointed at her,

"I'm gonna fine you for that! Seriously!"

"How could you? You have no kind of permit!"

"Ngh, at least I have my dignity!"

Splat, a Pidgey must've flown above him, Barry turned at gave a disgusted look at the white runny liquid flowing down his shoulder.

"Not anymore!" Hikari screeched, while cackling and jeering at the embarrassed blonde in front of the whole campsite.

It rained that night, heavily too, it was more like being in the midst of a violent storm, the tent shook, there was lightning, but worst of all…there was thunder, I was scared of thunder and the explosive noise it made, it felt like the walls and everything in the atmosphere were closing in on me, my blood began to rush around in my head, and I couldn't think straight, not to mention I was in an enclosed space, I began to hyperventilate, even though I didn't know it, the sound of my own breath echoing in my confinement, I heard some shuffling to the left of me, that's right, Silver was there, Silver was there. I sat upright, leaned over and shook the redhead gently,

"S-Silver? A-Are you awake?"

"Ngh…what do you want…?" Silver tried to make it sound as if he had just woken up, but his voice was as clear as day,

"I-I'm scared of thunder…can you stay awake with me…?" Silver sat upright, and placed his hands behind him, he then shuffled over to make a space that I could just about get into.

"Get in." He beckoned me to sit into the vacant space next to him, he pulled out what looked like some white wires from my open back, I was too frightened to protest about him rifling around in my own belongings, he gently pushed one headphone into each ear, finding a song and scrolling through all my play lists, eventually a soft piano began to ring in my ears, it drowned out the angry thunder outside, I stared at Chip's sleeping figure just opposite me, I felt Silver coil his arms around my shoulders and hold me closer to him, I wanted to object, but this was better than being petrified and sleeping in my own bed,

"Thanks…" I murmured,

"…mm…" Silver then grunted in response, I smiled, my eyes fluttering, and the piano fading away…


	8. Boys are Whores

**Konnichi Wa, Hello Chapter Eight.**

**-XxX-**

"_I __**knew **__something was going on between those two, I mean, they're always together!" _a voice that sounded like Candice's began to ring through my ears, then another voice sounded,

"_Shush! Don't disturb them!" _a commanding voice then spoke, definitely Marley.

"_They look so cute…" _Calm and quiet voice, maybe Cynthia?

"_Chip's just sleeping! Ha! The forest must've knocked him out or something!" _Marley again.

"_**Shush!**__" _Two voices in unison

"_Fine, fine…" _That faded out a bit…I think it was Marley...

This is the conversation I was waking up to, the voices of Marley, Candice and Cynthia filling my ears, I could detect where they were, and I felt that it was incredibly unjustified that they were in my room of the tent, it was almost as if they were staring at me, even though I couldn't see them, I felt like opening my eyes, until the figure lying next to me, pulled my head to bury in his chest, I could hear the girls squeal in excitement, but the heartbeat I heard distracted me, it froze everything around me, it was the only thing I bothered to listen to, and the warmth that began to emanate off of it in subtle waves, I was almost drawn to it in my subconscious state, I had to get closer, the action in which I made my body to perform, the squealing was only faint now, as I fell asleep again, using the loud beating as a morning lullaby…

"Hey! Wake up!" that adolescent voice sounded like Chip's, I opened my eyes, lethargically laying still until someone informed me of my surroundings, as it were, Chip was grinning down at me, I was dressed in the jeans I had worn last night and the day before, and a pink spaghetti top, my hair sprawled out on the pillow,

Wait…Pillow? I thought I had fallen asleep on some_one_, not some_thing_. I then longed for the heartbeat lullaby, and how it reminded me that someone was there with me. I groaned and rolled over, Chip knelt down and looked me in the eye,

"Everyone's outside, I came to get you up." -I groaned again- "Silver's out there too…well, I'll be waiting outside for ya." Chip left, his hair tickling my face as he rose and walked out, I threw myself to sit up, sighing heavily, the light was shining through the blue waterproof fabric of the tent, I felt like being lazy and sleeping again, but alas, I had to get up.

As soon as I stepped outside (I.e.- the danger zone) a football collided with the right side of my face, my body fell sideways, and before I knew it I was laying on the ground, looking up at the clear, cloudless sky.

That happened all in slow motion for me.

"OH SHIT!" Barry's voice screamed from my far right, my cheek felt as if some international heavyweight wrestler had punched me as hard as they could, I wondered how strong Barry intended that kick to be.

"Get up."

How sympathetic Silver.

I folded my arms and glared at him through half-lidded eyes, trying to look sarcastic, and most probably failing.

"Make me."

I felt ridiculous, this whole scene must have _looked_ ridiculous, Silver standing over me, blocking the suns rays from hitting my face, me lying on the floor, red cheek, folding my arms and glaring. Yup, pretty absurd. Silver sighed and pulled me up, right close to his face, it should have been like those shoujo anime moments, where all the bubbles and pretty decorations float everywhere, and the added girls in the background squeal like the fan girls they are. Except I didn't blush, or kiss him, I just glared. A steely glare that I thought that _he_ couldn't even begin to think about performing,

"What's your problem _now?_" Silver sighed through his teeth, I remained silent, and until I felt that I couldn't take it in anymore.

"Silver, you must answer this sincerely, and it must be the truth…" Oh ho! This was the Best_._ Comeback. Ever. Invented.

"What?"

"Why did you kiss me?" I said it loud enough for the whole campsite to hear, I could hear gasps and bursts of gossip around me, I smirked at Silver's expression, it was as if my words had slapped him around the face and told him that his mother was fat.

"Because…" Silver spoke softly, drawing nearer to me, he was gonna find some slick comeback, way to go Kotone! You just got yourself some publicity on your relationship issues! Well done my good chap!

"B-Because…?" I asked, my face heating up, Silver leaned over, keeping me up with his hand on the upper region of my back, and the other arm coiled around my waist, he brought the hand from my back, to slowly travel up to my head, and move some of my hair out of the vicinity of my face, he drew dangerously close again, and whispered to me,

"Because I like you, Miss Kotone…"

And with that, he kissed me again, my eyes shot open, and I could've fainted where I stood, with all the blood rushing to my head and all, my heartbeat was erratic, I was surprised that he couldn't hear it, or feel it against his own chest for that matter, once he broke away, he traced a finger down my bottom lip, his eyes meaningful and concentrating, almost entranced, he then blinked and shook his head a bit, as if to snap back to reality, Silver scoffed, placed me on my feet, and left me standing with all attention focused on my blushing self.

Oh _boy_ was I gonna get him back. Yes, Yes I would.

"Oh. My. God." I heard Hikari say as she approached me, running and giggling, along with Cynthia, who was smiling quietly to herself, Hikari grinned at me and clapped her hands together, I looked at her as bleakly as I could, trying to make her receive the message 'I'm really not bothered' through facial communication. Unfortunately, she didn't receive it.

"I _told you!_ I _knew_ he liked you! Ah~ my Kotone has discovered the anime romance that is herself and Silver…her darling little red head…Kyaa~ I'm getting all tingly just thinking about it! I need to start a Facebook campaign about this…how about…'the Kotone and Silver get together' group? Oh! And you need a moé face to entice him! Yes, yes you do!" Hikari grinned, Cynthia looked at her and laughed, I gave her the old 'you serious?' look, then I looked over at Silver who was leaning back against a wooden gate fence, looking very, very smug, arms folded and smirking at me. He was playing around with my mind, confusing my feelings. This camping trip was going to be…_interesting_ to say the least, and one hell of a week would play and juggle around with me. I was not happy. Not at all.

After breakfast, Marley announced that everybody stunk, (which most of us actually didn't) and that we needed to go swim in the lake. I dreaded it, I dreaded it as if it were my own death approaching, I rummaged through my bag to look upon what my mother had packed me, then I froze, she had packed a pink two-piece bikini for me, I didn't like it one bit, I kept scrounging around for something _other_ than that monstrosity that I had to wear, then the door to my room of the tent unzipped,

"I think it's cute." a voice echoed behind me, I froze and didn't want to turn around,

I also blushed, I knew who that was, and it annoyed me, it annoyed me to no end that _he_ had the _nerve _to come in when he damn well knew that I was going to change, thank god I was decent…actually, my skinny jeans were still attached to my legs, but my spaghetti top was lying next to me, and my top-half underwear was the only thing present on my upper body, I suddenly became very conscious of it, and coiled my arms around myself,

"I don't care, go away."

Silver chuckled and came up behind me, I tightened my grip on myself, he had control of this situation, whether I liked it or not, well being honest, I didn't like it one bit, I hated it.

"Why should I go?"

"Because I'm trying to change..?" I spoke slowly,

"Go on then." Silver sat down and looked at me as if I were meant to perform or something.

That was it, I had had enough, I turned and attempted to push him out, instead, once I fell forwards, he caught me, hugging me, with his head over my shoulder, that was my chance, I bit down on his neck as hard as I could, even drawing a small amount of blood, he immediately pulled away and frowned, I had to speak then, making hand gestures as I did so,

"What is _with you_ at the moment? You keep kissing me, then smirking, you keep trying to make me mad at you, then smirking, you keep-" Silver cut me off with a finger on my lip, I felt like biting it, causing him pain, that sounded awesome at that moment, but I felt that I needed to listen to whatever he was going to say, so I hugged myself again.

"I just don't want that jerk to think he has a chance with you."

My eyes grew wide, was he talking about Chip? He was _worried_ about _me_ being with _Chip_? That was absurd, unbelievable…wait, this could be played to my advantage.

"Awww man, Silver! I didn't know you cared so much!" I squealed and threw my arms around him, Silver didn't respond,

Epic fail.

"Kotone…I mean it."

"Why should you care? You've just been playing around and toying with me and my feelings!" I spoke my mind, simply because I couldn't endure it any longer, I felt my eyes burn with sudden tears, Silver extended a hand to my face, I placed my hands on the ground in front of me, I was kneeling, and almost sitting like a cat, I swatted Silver's hand like a fly, flicking my head up,

"Kotone I-"

"Shut up, and get out Silver, "

Silver was obedient. I held my head, then stared at the two-piece again, looked like I had to wear it.

Once I had slipped it on, I walked outside, the sun blinded me, and I shaded my face with a hand, then realising how cliché it was, and then whipped it back down to my side immediately, modestly shuffling toward the group. The guys were wearing swim shorts, and most of the girls were wearing things like I was, which let me relax a little, Crys was wearing a blue bikini with blue string crossing up her back, I felt the need to ping it against her as she snorted at me, and held Silver's hand, who was standing next to her, and didn't seem to notice, or he just ignored it, the latter I dreaded. Then Cynthia walked out of her tent, her sheer blonde hair shining against the sun, and her black swimsuit with winding ribbons up her body, crosses up her stomach, and a simple halter-neck tie to keep everything in place, I wish I looked at least something like Cynthia, at least it would be some sort of boost. Of course, guys will be guys, so guys just gawked, Marley had to shout at them to receive their attention again.

"We're going now! Hurry up!" Marley screamed, and ran off towards the lake, we all followed her, but I stopped as I reached the lake bank, the water was clear and clean, you could have mistaken it for a wavering mirror, then I fell forwards, it all happened swiftly, then my waist was grabbed and I was pulled up onto my feet,

"Ha! You were staring at your own reflection for ages! Then you just sort of began to fall forward…" Chip had caught me, chuckling, I slipped out of his grasp and blushed a bit, I faced the water again, slowly dipping the tips of my toes in, then a wave of icy cold shot up and literally collided with my brain,

My head hurt after that.

Chip dived in, it was perfect, take off, mid-air flip and landing silently in the water, then reappearing, completely drenched and his head just above the water, grinning, how the hell he managed it I don't know, I would have landed awkwardly, then bob and begin to spit out water, coughing and spluttering...

"Hey Silver!"

Oh god, Crys was trying to make her move by being all flashy and great in her high and mighty swimming suit…ugh.

"Hi Crys."

WHOA. Hold it! Did he just _reply_ to _Crys? _The one he's meant to be protecting me from!…Wait what?

"you know, you look pretty good in a swimsuit Crys, blue suits you."

I then felt like throwing up, Ew, Ew, and Ew. He was flirting with her, it wasn't even funny, my stomach must have been part of a circus in a previous life, with all the flips it was doing. Crys blushed and waved limply with one hand on her face,

"Awww, shut up! I'm not even that good looking!" Crys said while blushing, ugh, cheesy or what? I found myself hypnotised by the scene, but it was upsetting to watch, sure, this was just a little play around with Crys' feelings, Silver would contradict himself…would he?

"To me you are." Silver pulled Crys towards him and hugged her, sometimes I assume the guy was dropped on his head when he was a child. Crys squealed and winked at me, I felt like throttling her, and Silver. They both walked around in the lake, idly chatting and conversing, most of the conversing was about Crys I assumed, and I could only watch the two, Silver slipping through my fingers like myself trying to hold lake water. I bowed my head, and sat down on the lake bank, sulking. It was the only thing I could be bothered to do.

"Hey…Kotone? Are you jealous or something?" Chip began to speak to me, I retaliated with all the emotion _I_ had at that moment,

"NO WHAT THE HELL?- Oh…sorry Chip…I'm just a bit stressed…"

"it's okay Gal! Just tell me about it!"

Chip sat down next to me, and squeezed my hand, I looked shocked for a moment, but then smiled, and he was just trying to be friendly and understanding. He wasn't hitting on me.

"well, let's just say that Crys is my mortal enemy." I grimaced as I mentioned Crys' name, almost shivering, I hugged my middle,

"Uh-huh? Tell me more…?" Chip asked, propping his head on his hand, his elbow on his knee,

"That's all there is to tell, apart from the fact that she's walking around with a guy who kissed me not one hour ago."

"He kissed you? You mean, like forcing himself on you?"

"I suppose…"

Chip looked deep in thought, and he looked rather peeved, then he put and arm around my shoulders, and grinned what seemed to be his signature grin. And I was happy again. Marley was directing a water aerobics session which only consisted of herself, Cynthia was swimming around, being gawked at, Candice and Volkner were busy talking by the small island in the middle of the lake, and then…

"QUICK! LAST ONE OVER THERE'S A USELESS MAGIKARP!"

Barry was trying to grab people's attention, by shouting random comments, waving, splashing and writhing about in the water, and he was failing as far as I'm concerned. Chip laughed at Barry's attempt, and sprinted off to the middle island, splashing Candice and Volkner on the way there, he then sat down and waved to Barry, who was sinking in the water, frozen in his steps, I couldn't help but laugh, it was almost too comical. Volkner sighed and walked over to the sinking figure of the usually active Barry,

"Hey, idiot, there's someone that's ten times faster than you."

Barry's soul seemed to float out of his mouth, like a little white ghost, his body frozen in a running stance. Volkner poked the front of Barry's face, Barry didn't move.

Volkner pulled his hair violently.

Barry did not move.

Volkner mentioned candy.

Barry twitched a fraction.

Volkner mentioned a massive pile of candy, which Volkner would buy on him.

Barry grinned and shot up two feet in the air, once he returned to the earth below him he glomped Volkner, grinning and laughing,

"THANKS BIG BRO VOLKNER!"

I laughed uncontrollably, at Volkner's expression, a mix of disgust, anger and pretty much every negative emotion. Then I noticed something out of the corner of my eye, it was the back of Crys' swimsuit behind the centre rock of the cave, placed in the middle of the small island in the middle of the lake, I was curious, so I wandered over, I wonder if she was bashing her head on the rock, trying to kill herself after being rejected, I giggled at the thought, blood dripping down from her head, and then she faints, right behind the rock, and since nobody cares about her, she dies there, being chewed on by Rattata and Magikarp, how awesome that sounded! I wish it wasn't just a fantasy. Or maybe she lost her hair…? I approached the rock, listening in, I could hear giggling, and my heart beat faster, I backed myself up against the rock, I was dreading this, dreading this immensely, the sky darkened, giving the lake a chilly and dull atmosphere, my shadow could probably be seen, but I didn't care, I held my breath and looked around the side of the rock face, and there, backed up against the rock…

Was Crys,

Being kissed by Silver.


	9. An Unhappy Couple and Their Bucket of Ew

**Konnichi Wa, Hello Chapter Nine**

**-XxX-**

I found it very hard to concentrate on whatever the hell I was meant to be doing after the lake, I gained a sinking feeling that something was about to get worse, and couldn't take my eyes off Silver, who brought Crys with him wherever he went, let's just say, he was caught up, and I was caught out, if that made any sense. But of course, it wouldn't. Hikari attempted to cheer me up on numerous occasions, but no way was a going to turn all happy on her just because she made me smile, even though I tried to hide the depression that I truly felt. If anything, this was a losing game for me, even though I had no idea of the general objective, I began to crave home, and my mother, tell her what had occurred, and how freaking miserable it all was. It didn't rain that night, but I kept having nightmares, again and again during the endless dark, nightmares of Crys grinding me to a pulp with her spiteful words. And in the end, I was always sinking, sinking into a vast ocean of blackness and dark, and no matter how hard I tried to drown it out, her words always spilled weights onto my heart, dragging me further and further below the surface of my content state, and I would always hear my heart screaming at me to fight back as I saw Silver staring down at me, gazing at my suffering with his mercury eyes, perfectly blended in with pale complexion, his crimson hair boldly showing against his skin, I hit the void's floor, awaiting darkness to crawl over my body and constrict me in its depths…

"Hey…Kotone?"

I shot up awake, _again._ except, this time I woke in the morning, and not in the middle of God-knows-what-time. Hikari looked at me sideways, my eyes flown open and my forehead sweaty, it was only another nightmare, nothing more.

"Are you…okay?" Hikari asked, I sighed and tilted my head forward, sighing again, I pulled a false smile and looked back at Hikari,

"I'm fine, don't worry." I looked around to see that Chip was still sleeping soundly, and Silver had left, again.

"Kotone, I heard about Silver and Crys. It's…awful…"

My eyes widened, no matter how much I tried to hide it, it was no longer an obscurity to Hikari. She placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder and smiled,

"It'll be okay, don't worry about it." she said to me, I looked down at my sock-covered feet, crossing them at the ankles. I felt like returning to the warm patch in my bed again, all I had to do was fall back against it. But I couldn't bring myself to, as if some magnetic, repelling force was pushing me back like a rubber ball. So I hugged my knees,

When in doubt, hug your knees.

Or something like that.

"Well…I guess I'll see you, you need to change and stuff." Said Hikari, standing up and leaving the tent, just when she reached the door, I called to her, she gave a small 'hmm?' in question, and I spoke quietly.

"Thank you…for trying to cheer me up…"

A small smile graced Hikari's features, and she left me.

Later on, I walked out into a dull atmosphere, small flecks of rain dusting onto my face, and everything was cold and had lost its colour, the rain was drizzled across my line of vision, making a sort of misty cloud of falling water everywhere. The camp's inhabitants for the next four days were running about in waterproof coats, well, the running part applied to Barry, everyone else was sitting around on logs, or standing up and chatting. I inspected the campsite for any sign of Crys, or Silver, and I then glanced to my left to see the two cuddled up in the doorway of Crys' tent, nice and snug.

Nice and _smug _more like.

I cursed Crys under my breath, Silver glanced over at me with those mercury eyes of his, almost to make sure I was looking at him. I turned away huffily and moved to see Candice sat on her own, a blue, thin waterproof mac untidily run over her body, the hood pulled over her head and pulled at the strings, so only her wide chocolate-brown eyes were plainly visible, along with a few strands of her charcoal hair curling over the rim of the crinkled material. I sat next to her, pulling my pink hood over my head, and looking to Candice.

"What's wrong?" I asked, Candice looked at me and folded the coat textile away from her mouth.

"Nothing really…just waiting for Volkner to wake up…" said Candice, almost solemnly, my heart wrenched at the sound, but she was focusing on him again, it was like an obsession.

"You know, you're really, really attached to him, almost like you're sewn together at the hip or something."

Oops. That came out a tad wrong, crap. Candice then looked at me sideways, allowing a sigh to escape her cherry pink lips.

"I…I love Volkner so much, it's not like I can help it…"

Volkner, _again._ but thank _God _she didn't take what I said to an offensive extent. And strangely enough, I understood what she meant, I realised that Silver and I must've looked like conjoined twins before, even though I didn't feel the same way for Silver as Candice did for Volkner, I was pretty sure it looked similar. Candice looked down at the floor, her eyes sad and didn't have the gleam in them that they always had, a pang of indescribable guilt hit me. I thought I must've sounded like some deranged mother talking to her child.

Because I _have_ a deranged mother, who talks to me that way.

"I'm sorry Candice…I really didn't mean to sound bad…"

Candice looked at me, then smiled, then laughed, I frowned, what was to laugh at?

"Don't be! You actually knocked some sense into me!" The excitable girl then threw her head back in laughter, grinning the widest grin known to man. I shook my head playfully, smiling. Then I caught a glimpse of Volkner, emerging from his tent with tired eyes, wearing a short-sleeved black shirt and jeans, the jeans had holes in and were ripped at the knees, a studded belt coiled lazily around his waist. I turn back to Candice, she had already shot up from her seat. As I predicted.

I moved before any icky stuff happened.

I made my way towards my tent, I reached the side of it before…

Smack. I hit the ground, my foot hanging from a guy rope. What the hell.

I heard laughter behind me, I turned slowly, giving my face some time to cool down. Silver was standing there, a bold smirk touching the corner of his mouth. I glared as fiercely as I could at the crimson-haired twit.

"Well, someone should watch where she's going." Silver remarked, muttering loud enough for the sound to reach my ears. I pursed my lips, refraining from screaming violently at him.

"It's the damn tent ropes, they're invisible. I can see perfectly fine." I snapped back, venom laced in my words. Silver raised an eyebrow and chuckled louder, then more attention began to be focused on us, like I was some kind of freak show and he was the person that started the small gathering crowd, I sighed and stood up to him, standing on my tiptoes to reach his height, but I was still below his chin.

"Now what?"

"…" No spiteful words ejected from my mouth. My lips parted, and sealed, like I was trying to talk to him, though no sound emitted from my throat, so I looked more like a fish out of water. I realised how absurd I looked, and narrowed my eyes, cheeks puffed up like a grumpy infant.

"What? You trying to lick my face or something?" Silver teased, I looked down at the floor. I had had enough of this, it wasn't like him, he had turned suddenly from 'solitary, protective Silver' to 'Silver who teases and frustrates me.' Despite the attention I had focused on myself, I balled my fist, raised it behind me, and threw it forcefully, aimed for his face. To my surprise, I landed a hit. Oh God, I've punched him. I punched Silver right on his nose. Everyone around us gasped in unison and laughed out of sync, chatting and murmuring surrounding me. I realised that I could've broken his nose, and opened my eyes to see that Silver was holding it, smirking. Why the hell was he smirking? I just freaking _punched him_!

"Wow, well _excuse me._ What was that for Princess? Did I insult you or something? I'm sorry, your fist must've slipped from the sky. I understand." Silver half-mused, moving his hand out of the way of his nose, revealing a bloody mess on his hand _and_ face,

"Silver? Oh baby what happened to you!" Crys rushed over to Silver. With a tissue in hand. I then looked at the scene in the bleakest manner. Laughing inwardly at how frantic Crys' voice sounded. It was ridiculous. Then Crys glared at me, a steely glare, like she was gonna murder me with the tissue in her hand.

Or a stick.

I didn't really want to think about it.

"You." said Crys.

"Me?" I replied.

"You punched Silver."

Now was the time to be cocky. "Yeah, I know, your point?"

Crys walked up to me, her chest puffed up as if she was as regal as the Queen Of England.

"You. Punched. Silver."

"…?"

"You. _Bitch._"

At that, Crys leapt at me. Her hands soon locked around my neck. I felt my face turn red, to purple in less than thirty-seconds. Then, her hands were slowly removed, finger by finger. I opened my eyes again, feeling the blood flow return to my neck and head once again. Silver was gripping Crys' arm, much to her disgust, and he was bending it back, must've felt like holding a wild lion from attacking. I coughed, feeling the need to breathe loudly and dramatically.

"Silver! What the hell do you think you're _doing?_" Crys shouted at Silver, who winced at her loud, and screechy voice.

"Stopping an unnecessary death." Silver replied bluntly, shooting me a concerned look, I looked at him in question, flopping my head to the side.

"She _punched_ you!" Crys retaliated, struggling against the tight-looking squeeze on her wrist. Silver glanced over to her,

"I know. I'll deal with her later. But she didn't punch _you_ now, did she?"

Crys remained quiet, her teeth clenched and her expression like one of an angry bull.

Ha. Owned.

Foolish Crys. Curse me, detest me.

After that whole hoo-hah, Silver and Crys stayed apart for the rest of the day, we were gathered around a small fire, which wasn't particularly a fire, it was more like a burning pile of glowing sticks to stare at. I was one of the observers.

"Barry! I will beat you up so bad, your _mom_ won't even know you're her son!" I heard Hikari's voice roar across the air, I turned around to see Hibiki and Barry racing around the tents with a pair or Hikari's blue striped panties on a stick. It kinda looked like a flag, actually. Hikari was chasing the two, beet red and angry, very, very angry. Luckily, she tripped over a tent rope.

See? They _are_ invisible.

"Hibiki! Get back here. _Now._" Hikari seethed through her teeth, still sprawled out onto the ground. Hibiki ran his fingers through the hair that stuck up randomly over his eye.

"Nah, not until you have fulfilled Master Barry's request." Hibiki stated in a British accent, as if Barry was the high lord of the perverts.

I thought that title should belong to Hibiki, to be honest.

Hikari stood up quickly, ran over to Barry, pecked him on the lips and ran off, the stick with panties attached in hand.

"I only said my cheek…" Barry grinned, it made the travelling girl stop, ball her fists and storm the rest of the way to her tent.

Chip came and sat next to me, I turned to look at him.

"Hey." I spoke, smiling at the ground.

"Yo" Chip replied in greeting. The unsteady and awkward death of the conversation wafted around until Chip broke the uneasy silence between us.

"So, you punched Silver so much it made him bleed, huh?" Chip started, I looked away, I wasn't exactly proud of it.

"Yeah…but don't spread it around, I'd rather only the people who saw it, knew, if you know what I mean." I replied, Chip nodded and grinned, the glowing from the hunks of wood still casting a form of glow across his face. I smiled shyly and blushed a little. I realised that if Silver wasn't there, I still had Chip, and that made me happy. We remained silent until I saw someone beckon to me from inside the store hut, the curtains were all drawn, and only a gloved hand was visible through the glass pane. I excused myself from my conversation, and walked inside. Shutting the door after me. The hut had a dank smell of wet, brittle wood, and from what I could see, there were numerous cooking pans and pots lined up on some shelves on the far wall. Rather dingy to me. But I was scared as to who called me in…and what they wanted.

"Hello?" I called naïvely into the dark,

"Now. I shall _deal_ with you."

Oh Christ, I could recognise that voice anywhere.

"Silver, if you're just gonna test my patience and my will to not punch you again, then forget it" I spat into the air, not actually directing it at any specific location. Then I felt arms slowly coil around my waist like a duo of snakes, and a pair of lips held against my nape. It made me shiver as Silver's breath slowly and gently flew downward from the back of my neck to the small of my back, I reached for the small torch in my back pocket of my shorts, I reached it and flicked the switch, until it fell to the floor and I fell along with it.

So did Silver.

I shone the torch in his face frantically, he was leaning over me, hands either side of my head, and a silver chain necklace dangling limply over my line of vision, his expression must have been at least half as surprised as mine, because I had a mix of emotions crossing my mind, the one that stood out the most was a butterfly-sensation in the pit of my stomach, along with my heart beating wildly and fiercely, and it felt _good._ which was strange, I don't usually like those kinds of feelings. Silver had a black hood over his face, so his hair stood out boldly (and rather brightly) against it. I noticed his nose was on an awkward angle (Lucian had discovered and confirmed that I had broken his nose, and wouldn't recover for the best part of a few months) and a pang of guilt hit me right where that feeling was. Great.

"Silver…why do you hate me, get together with my worst enemy, and then do this…I'm only human…and I can't take it anymore! You're tearing my heart in two and screwing my head about! It's _insane_! Why are you doing it?" I asked, a broad streak of blush spread out across my nose and cheekbones, Silver knocked the torch out of my hands, so only the pale moonlight shining through the window granted us light, courtesy of the flapping curtains.

"I'm trying to prove something your mother has been proving for three months now…" Silver whispered softly, brushing away some askew strands of hair away from my face, and my heart hit a wall in my chest as I realised what he was trying to say. I stopped breathing as I let everything soak in, why he had kissed me, why he had teased the hell out of me, why he got together with Crys…

He proved to me, how much I needed him…why I approached him in the first place, instead of leaving him alone that day I met him.

"Kotone…do you realise now?"

I nodded slowly, Silver sat up on the hard wooden floor, looked away, so I couldn't see his face through his hair and hood, and spread his arms out, as if he was asking for a hug, I looked at him in confusion, then he made a sighing noise and beckoned me nearer. I giggled and threw my arms around his neck, resting my head on his shoulder and leaning into his body, kneeling in front of his figure and giggling. And he hugged me back, wrapping his arms around my waist.

"Sorry for breaking your nose Silver…I really and truly meant for that punch to miss…" Well, part of that was a lie, mostly the 'I meant for that to miss' part. Silver then started laughing, his hood falling from his face, exposing his crimson hair which I ran a hand through, and he drew back, so did I, I got the butterfly feeling again, and stared into his mercury eyes, leaning closer to him every second, it seemed natural, me and him. Kotone and Silver…

"Silver? What are you doing!"

And Crys.

Damn it.


	10. Biscuits: The Cause of Unecessary Wars

**Konnichi Wa, Hello Chapter Ten.**

**Blondes, Harems And Biscuits.**

**-xxx-**

Crys was angry, too angry for me. She stormed up to Silver and I, grabbing me forcefully by the collar.

"Y-You…" Crys started to shake and her words began to waver as her eyes brimmed with tears. I braced myself. Awaiting the stinging sensation on my cheek…

Smack. I opened my eyes, because I wasn't the one to be hit, and neither was anyone in the room, Silver had Crys' hand firmly gripped in restraint, but Crys was shaking, tears now flowing freely down her pale cheeks. Silver looked at me, and at my shocked expression, and then back at Crys. Silver carelessly dropped Crys' hand, and the cerulean-haired girl dropped to her knees, fists balled and nails digging into her jean-covered thighs. Her tears almost fluorescent against the bright moonlight refracting from the window to her reddened face. Silver's expression was of contempt,. Silver sighed out loud, hauled himself from the ground and stood over Crys,

"Crystal…"

The sobbing girl looked up to Silver with the widest and most hope-filled eyes I had ever seen on her part, her weak voice penetrated the looming silence that followed after his words.

"Silver…this is a dream…right? I love you…and you love me…right?" Crys asked, her voice cracking as Silver just stared at her contemptibly the entire time she spoke. For once in my life, I actually came close to feeling sorry for her, but now, she knew the pain she had put me through, and she got it ten-times worse. Why? She got it all at once.

I stood up and walked over to Silver, who glanced over at me for a second, before returning his hard-fixed stare to Crys.

"Now you know. Now you know how this all feels, to be tossed around, messed with, bullied, your hearts torn is it not?" Silver firmly proved his point to the weeping Crys, who nodded in defeat,

"-I know that, because that's what you put Kotone through, and, being honest, I've never liked you one bit because of that…" Silver started, which made me go wide-eyed.

"Silver…how do you feel about her…?" Crys asked, as if I wasn't standing right next to him. I half-hoped the answer would be…no, I can't think that…

"She's my best friend…but…I…" Silver was lost for words, and he was faintly blushing, or maybe it was the reflection of his hair, or something…I don't know. Crys smiled weakly and looked down at the floor.

"I understand."

And at that, Silver and I left.

Once I woke up the next morning, I discovered Silver had been watching me sleep all morning, all revealed due from spiteful information from Chip, who seemed displeased at the memory. I felt like I was a victim of something…stalking, maybe. But oh well, there was nothing I could do to stop this. I guess everything was sorted after all. Well, that's what it seemed like. I stepped out of my tent, (Avoiding the green ropes holding the damn thing up) to see a most peculiar scene…Hibiki and Barry squatting on a waterproof mat, and directly in between the two boys was a packet of biscuits. They were both staring at each other in a way so strange (it was almost like rivalry, and as if they wanted to rip each other apart, also their eyes occasionally passed over the sweet, crumbly food, all at the same time) , I couldn't really determine the kind of vibe the situation was meant to be giving. Then I noticed there was only one biscuit in the brown packet, and I automatically understood.

Two people. One biscuit.

Oh. Dear. God.

The scene almost tickled me slightly, I mean, it was only a biscuit…right? They were staring as if it were a girl they both liked. This really sounds odd if you put it that way. Barry's hand twitched and Hibiki immediately jumped straight up and pointed at him in shock,

"YOU! YOU TRIED TO TAKE IT-"

Volkner wondered over, glanced over each face, Hibiki frozen in the accusation position, and Barry…just being Barry. Volkner took the biscuit, popped it in his mouth and left. Obviously not caring that the biscuit was the freaking Holy Grail to the two idiots. Speaking of the two idiots, they were watching the stoic blonde walking away from them with _their_ biscuit.

They were both prepared to kill,

Brutally murder,

You get the gist. I backed away from the odd feud and music reached my ears…along with Marley's voice,

"You're not doing this right Silver! You're the one on the left!"

That sounded interesting…then when I recognised the music I have to stifle a laugh.

**Work it harder make it better, do it faster makes us stronger…**

Bet you all recognise that. I silently walked behind my tent to see Silver and Marley attempting to do that crazy dance to 'Harder Better Faster Stronger', Silver was completely failing and Marley looked like she was prepared to attack him as a result. But one thing crossed my mind, how did Marley get Silver to do this? It wasn't like him at all….he either just complied with her demands…on the other hand, he could've been the only person left that didn't run away from Marley in desperate fear, the latter seemed more probable. Since Silver wasn't scared of anything…actually, what if he was? If so, _what on Earth would he be afraid of_? I would find that out in time…maybe later today. But I concentrated on the two amateur dancers in front of me. I felt like laughing. Silver was just staring at Marley's rather passionate determination, and not moving at all, until Marley noticed.

"Damn it! You know what? Screw it. I know you don't wanna be here." Marley nearly shouted, scorn laced in her words. Silver rolled his eyes and left.

So like him. I turned away from the scene and walked as fast as I could away from that tent, so it looked like I hadn't gone anywhere near it. I thought my plan would succeed, until a hand was clasped onto my shoulder, I looked around to see Silver behind me, his hood up and he was…blushing.

"Not a word of what you just saw."

I smiled.

"Sure. My lips are sealed."

Silver nodded and stalked off somewhere. I shrugged and walked in the opposing direction.

After that episode, Marley insisted we all go wall climbing; fun! Err, maybe not.

"One! two! One! Two! One! Two!" Marley was shouting like some military officer as we walked through the forest, which brought rather…recent memories of Silver. I just crept to the back of the queue to see Riley, his Lucario walking beside him, it was shooting glares at random trees and people that dare come within a two-meter radius of it; scary.

"Greetings, Kotone!" Riley grinned and gave a small wave. I thought: _Oh God._ as I approached him. He came from a rather rich family; he wasn't stuck up in any way, but just a little posh…

"Hi Riley…" I said, smiling as coyly as I could; I didn't usually talk to Riley.

"How're you this fine day? It has exquisite warmth to it- don't you think?"

See what I mean? He's just a nice guy, I suppose.

"Yeah, I suppose it is…though, it was cold this morning…"

"What's wrong, Kotone?"

Oh great, _too_ distant…bit obvious that there's something on my mind; which there was, but I don't want to share it at this moment.

"Oh, nothing, just feeling a bit…distant, I suppose…."

"Ah, I see…" Riley replied as he took his blue hat off, and dusted it off as if a million bugs were scattered all over it. Even though there was nothing on it at all.

"You and Cynthia…are really close at the moment…"

Riley blushed; a lot. He cleared his throat and looked away at the mention of the beautiful blonde girl; whom of which, I was sure he had taken a liking to.

"Well, yes. I reckon so. And- between you and me- I really love her…"

No shit, Sherlock. It's kind of obvious.

"That's really nice…I think she likes you too." I spoke with a smile, as confident as Riley seemed, he was really, really shy when it came to this kind of thing- that, I could figure out from this situation alone.

"R-Really?" Riley stuttered, the silver hair placed near his eye flicking as he jumped, a little taken aback.

"Yeah, you really make a great couple." I smiled wider, Riley was growing on me right now.

"What about you and Silver? You also seem very close."

Tut-tut. Riley, changing the subject isn't getting you anywhere, oh well, give him a break from all this embarrassment. I grinned at Riley's remark; I _knew_ everyone would notice.

"Well, we fell out for a while, but now we're friends again." I said, Riley gave a look of disbelief and chuckled:

"It doesn't seem like that."

"Really? How so?"

"Well, for one, he kissed you." Riley gave a smug smile, I blushed, ugh, hot face, not good.

"He wasn't being particularly nice to me. It was more of a teasing thing."

Riley looked like he was about to explode in fits of laughter. I suddenly became self-conscious of it,

"You're crazy, Kotone…absolutely insane…you cannot work it out?"

Wait, work what out?

"What haven't I worked out? What is there to work out!"

"I believe, like most people do- that Silver loves you."

Okay. What the hell.

"We've reached our destination! Now, get here now!"

Phew, saved by…Marley.

We all grouped around Marley, who looked surprisingly pleased with herself. Barry zipped to the front of the crowd, grinning triumphantly. Marley quirked an eyebrow and sighed audibly.

"We've reached the wall climbing…place. Now, get into twos and enter in silence!"

Yeah, that's perfectly reasonable. You're not a freaking teacher, and its _outside._ We don't need to enter anywhere.

Epic fail to you. -insert smug face here-.

Riley parted from me to approach Cynthia, which really _wasn't _much of a surprise after our conversing. Guess who approached me,

Chip and Silver. They both stood by either side of me in unison, Silver glaring at Chip, and vice-versa. I was stuck in the middle, feeling like a soft cuddly plushie in between two children, being fought over.

We reached a small gate, with a tower of rock placed in the middle, it loomed over me, swallowing me within its shadow, and I backed away from it, because the sky made it seem to rock, about to topple onto us. But I saw someone clambering up the rock, scaling the thing in no time flat,

And it wasn't one of us. They had thick (But wispy) pastel blonde hair, tied up in a bandanna which looked purple to me; it had a red tip on each loose end. I saw Candice staring at the figure, along with Hikari and Marley, Marley was blushing quite a lot, so I deduced that it was a guy. The boy slid down the rock as if it were a ladder, and stood in front of us, a Gengar grinning a devious grin and keeping close to him.

The guy was cute, I'll tell you that, but definitely not the Gengar.

"Hi, you coming to climb this thing?" Said the boy in a cheery voice, he seemed to be our age, telling from his height and posture, hands in his beige jeans and a purple and crimson scarf tied around his neck, also a plum-coloured sweater on his top half. All the girls apart from me nodded with dreamy faces, and the guys just nodded indifferently, Volkner keeping a closer eye on Candice, and I didn't particularly blame him, most females looked as if they were about to pounce on the blonde.

"Well, first thing's first, I'm Morty. Pleased to meet you all." Morty spoke with a wide smile, the whole situation began to be almost unbelievable. It was utterly ridiculous, even. Then his purple eyes turned to me, he stared for around ten seconds while I attempted to look down at the floor, I hated being stared at. Morty then covered it all up by looking across the line. Ha. I can feel a me-centred harem begging to develop. Oh dear. Not good for a girl.

"Okay, guys on one side"-Morty gestured to his left- "girls on the other, I'll have Leaf get over here…"

Leaf? What kind of a name is _that?_

A brunette girl with a sun hat on walked towards us and the scary rock at Morty's call, she had chocolate brown eyes-like me, and was wearing a baby blue spaghetti top, and some burgundy shorts and white sneakers - a small smile gracing her features.

Then the _guys_ looked. I tried not to laugh.

"Leaf will take the guys, and I'll do the girls."

I got the vibe telling me that the guys nearly cheered. I was neutral in the situation. As long as I was out of this hell soon, I was happy.

Wait, I have to move.

I walked over to my designated side, and stood around the middle of the line, not really caring about the venomous glares burning through the back of my head.

Soon enough, it was my turn, Morty smiled at me, which he seemed to do a lot.

"You might need to take your hat off." The blonde suggested, I blushed from embarrassment and removed my hat as quickly as I could and walked up to the ghastly rock which I despised almost abnormally. Morty smiled at me a little wider, and for a brief second, it turned into a small smirk. That baffled me quite a bit; what was he thinking of? I heard clapping from around the opposite side of the rock, I craned my neck around the corner along with everyone else, to see Chip smiling triumphantly at the top of the climbing wall, waving gingerly at the scowling boys below him, Leaf was clapping the most enthusiastically, a proud smile etched near her chin, though you couldn't see her very well because of her dull white sunhat, I noticed Chip glancing over at me every few seconds, to see if I was watching him, then he somersaulted down to the ground, landing perfectly with the ropes still attached to him. Chip smiled and bowed at the crowd and at Leaf before glancing over at me and flashing a rather childish grin, I coyly smiled back, though one of Silver's hard and deadly glare bore into Chip's skull once I did so, I was surprised that the poor tan boy couldn't feel it.

I began to climb the rock once I had been properly attached to the blue ropes, I was doing pretty well until I looked down at the ground below me.

Then I panicked. I felt the world begin to spin, and I tried to hold my head, but I was frozen.

"Kotone? You okay up there?" Morty called up, I heard Crys and Marley scoff. I felt like flipping them off.

"Y-Yeah…I'm fine…" I falsely reassured him; I was scared so much I could've just cried right there.

I felt my hand begin to slip, and I grabbed the top of the rock, which was what I was meant to be doing. Morty and the others cheered as I smiled shakily,

"Now let go!" Morty called.

What the hell was he thinking! I can't let go!

I said nothing.

Crys; who was supporting me down below, waited until Morty wasn't looking, and yanked on the aqua rope, it tightened my harness and I unwillingly let go, I couldn't hold on then. I landed slowly with a small rustle of the grass below my feet, it felt great to be back onto ground level.

We found out that Morty was staying at the campsite not far from us, he was from Ecruteak in Johto, and Leaf was from the Kanto region, which I could guess from all of her clothes, Kanto was warmer than Johto, Sinnoh was even colder than Johto, but warmer than Kanto in the summer, but that's another story. Morty and Leaf agreed to visit us every so often, Morty often glanced over at me, and looking away as the awkward eye contact came about. There was something about him that was odd.

But I didn't take any notice of it.

It was sunset, a crackling fire was eventually lit; the delay was thanks to Barry's ability to move very quickly, he had whizzed around the previous flames so fast his trousers has caught fire from running too close, resulting in him cursing at the fire, grabbing our jug of water and pouring it over his trousers, along with the lit source of warmth, making everyone groan in contempt and throw insults at the poor hyper blonde.

Once it was night time, most of us were in our tents, idly chatting or falling into sleep's clutches already, I was outside with Chip, leaning onto the gate. Chip was sitting on it, swinging his legs every so often,

"Kotone, why d'ya like redhead so much?" The tan boy questioned me, I looked at him, and I knew he was referring to Silver.

"He's been my friend for years, he kinda bottles everything up, but once you get to know him, he's a good guy…" I trailed off mid-sentence, realising the truth in my words.

"Doesn't seem like that to me." Chip answered rather bluntly. I looked up at him,

"Why not?"

"Well, for one, he wasn't exactly nice to you after Barry's party…even though I really _did_ like that night"-Chip shot me a playful wink, I shook my head while laughing a little- "-and I guess he's just a bit…overly protective, he can't even express himself properly, I mean, think about it. Unlike me, he can't even admit he's…" Chip stopped and I quirked an eyebrow, something Chip could express that Silver couldn't? That was believable, however…

"He's…?" I dragged him on, Chip blushed a little and jumped down from the gate to be next to me. He then placed a hand on my cheek and lifted my chin to make me look directly at him, and for some reason, I couldn't smack his hand away, or even _look away_. Chip leaned closer to me with a sincere gaze, something Silver never did unless he was thinking…great, now I was comparing the two.

"Chip…? What can't he admit…?" I asked, a little taken aback and wide-eyed.

"He can't even admit…"

I anticipated the end of the sentence intently.

"_He can't even admit that he loves you."_

And at that, Chip kissed me.


	11. Emotions Shouldn't Exist

**-Konnichi Wa, Hello-**

**-Chapter Eleven-**

**-Glares, Glances, Quick Relations and Jealousy-**

**-xxx-**

I pulled away from Chip and stared at him with the biggest, dumbest, brightest blush.

"Love me?" I asked, Chip nodded, the same gaze fixed onto his devilishly handsome face, I shook my head so much I began to feel dizzy. Chip hugged me closer to him, one hand placed and settled on the back of my head, stroking my hair a little.

"I understand if you don't want to go out with me right now…but in time, I'm sure you'll grow to love me…" Chip told me, his chin balanced on my head. Y'know Chip, my head isn't some kind of table, but whatever. My heartbeat was still surprisingly erratic, and I looked around, only for my eyes to fall on the worst possible person,

"Let go of her."

Yup, it was Silver. My heart skipped a beat at the sound of his voice, Chip glanced over at him, almost protecting me with a look that glared daggers through Silver's head. Chip tightened his grip on me. I felt like a toy, in which two children were fighting over. I wanted to stop this before it became a fight, but my words would be muffled from Chip's shirt. Damn it all.

"I said, _let. Go._" Silver spat whilst scowling dangerously at Chip, who _hn-_ed as if he were smirking, I couldn't see his face anymore. My eyes were peering over at Silver from over Chip's arm, that's all I could see.

"Why should I? I mean, _I'm_ the one that loves her, what do you think I'm gonna do, huh?" Chip's voice became angrier as his sentence continued, Silver smirked and shoved his hands in his own pockets, approaching Chip with that smirk remaining on his face,

"You think she loves you back, don't you?" Silver spoke coolly and calmly, Chip clenched his teeth and his arms tensed as if he were ready to lunge at the redhead, then punch him until there was nothing left, which I _really _hoped he wouldn't do. Damn Silver and his ability to annoy people so much.

"That, I'll leave for her to decide" Chip spoke with his teeth still clenched together, until he began to raise his voice in lividness. "if _you're_ trying to win her over, that's _got to_ be a joke, you're nothing but a selfish, manipulative fucker who can just sway people at will!"

I winced, Silver didn't seem to be even moved angrily by that speech, through all this, I was still being held onto, until Chip decided not to take it any further and walked off, not letting go of my hand until my arm and his arm stretched to the limit of taking me with him, I watched Chip walk into our tent and switch the lantern off, I felt a pang of guilt that hit me along with his withdrawal.

"…"

Silver said nothing. Then glanced over at me.

"Kotone, I'd advise you to stay away from me if you choose to love him…because I can't fucking stand him anymore…"

Silver pivoted on his heels and began to walk away, flipping his hood up. Not again, I couldn't lose him _again_…I felt my eyes begin to burn,

"SILVER!"

I ran up behind Silver, throwing my arms around his middle and crying into his back, I couldn't lose my best friend twice in a row, I'd only just got him back!

Silver brushed me off, I began to cry harder while dropping to my knees in assumed defeat, until he knelt down in front of me to my level and sighed,

"Crying isn't getting you anywhere."

I looked up at him, his face was stoic and emotionless, but I guessed that was just Silver. He wiped the tears from my eyes and face gently with his thumb, which caused me to become flushed even more.

"Silver…Chip said that you can't admit…what he just said to me…is that…true?" I had to ask sometime, or it would kill me from the inside slowly. Silver froze for a while, failing to hide his emotions, which he usually was _really_ good at. I must've caught him off guard.

"Silver…?"

Silver looked me straight in the eye with an unconceivable look on his face, it was a mix of confusion, anger and something else I couldn't determine, it was something I had never seen etched into his features before…

"If I told you that were true, would you give him up?"

I blushed hard and my eyes grew even wider, Silver was blushing the tiniest bit, damn men and their ability to keep the red from their cheeks. But Silver _did_ love me…however, Chip did too.

"Of course not, he's my friend…" I replied distantly, deep in thought.

"But he loves you." Silver interjected,

"That doesn't make a-"

"-Difference? He's gonna be all over you 24/7 if you don't stay away from him…"

Growing annoyed, I poked Silver's forehead with my two forefingers.

"That's not gonna happen. I know Chip, and he wouldn't do that. And you are too Mr Know-It-All." I stuck my tongue out childishly at him.

"I know Chip, and he might take liberties." Silver mimicked me; making a bigger mockery.

I frowned at him. He was being melodramatic. Silver smirked at my sudden silent vocabulary, but one thing was on my mind, something I really couldn't tell either of the boys:

_I was in love with both of them._

No matter how hard I tried to shove it to one of them, or none at all, it all stayed the same, the reason for trying this? I didn't want them either to fight over me, or leave one of them broken hearted, because they were both special to me in different ways, and I now knew their feelings for me. This made everything worse. First came Silver, then when Chip grew closer to me, he shared the little pathetic thing in my chest known as my heart with Silver, I had given in to fighting the feeling, pushing it to the back of my head and repeating denial in my head.

"Hn. Why the sudden silence?"

"I-I don't know…" I stuttered, trying to push my last thought out of my head. Silver held his hand out to me and I took it, standing up in unison together. All of a sudden, Silver leaned down to me, the moonlight highlighting the corresponding side of his face, which made his mercury eyes glint and appear more metallic than usual, I looked up to him, but didn't move anywhere, closing my eyes as he wrapped his arms around my waist, I was blushing uncontrollably now, managing to utter the words:

"You're gonna kiss me now…aren't you?"

**-xxx-**

I woke up in between Chip and Silver, both of them sleeping closer to me than they usually did, Chip's breath on my face, Silver's on my neck. It didn't feel particularly good. I managed to shift out of the tent without waking the two boys, then coming across the group of girls (Well, all the girls except me), and they gave a quick glance at me before giggling and gossiping to themselves, I walked over in blatant curiosity, before Hikari ran over and squealed before pulling me into a bear hug, she hugged me so tightly I could barely breathe,

"We saw you and Chip!" She squealed, hugging me tighter while the other girls laughed at my face, which was as red as a ripe tomato. Not a good look Kotone, you should learn something from Silver, it's called 'suppressing any blood that flows to your face' (Yeah, I was gonna say red things, but Silver has something red stuck on him all the time, doesn't he?)

"-And we saw what happened with Silver too!"

Wait, what?

"You're so lucky Kotone!" Candice remarked with a sly smirk, I felt like flipping them all off and sinking into some kind of hole. Some might call me lucky, but believe me, being a fought-over teddy-bear is _not_ a good thing to be. It makes you feel absolutely awful.

"But I have a feeling Kotone doesn't seem to like this…"

…

THANK YOU CYNTHIA!

"Why wouldn't she? Two hot guys after her like this?"

Marley just had to ruin it, didn't she. (That was a statement, not a question.) And she seems to _think_ that Chip and Silver are good-looking. Well I can't argue against that. But _Marley?_

"Actually, it's not the best feeling…being pulled around like that…" Cynthia said, making a _very_ valid point.

I'm backing Cynthia on this, if you couldn't tell. -Smile-

"How do you know, I mean, you're not getting pulled around." Marley, logic has a twin…

His name is SHUT THE HELL UP.

"I did once…" Cynthia said with a quiet and squeaky tone, Marley looked at her wide-eyed.

"By _who?_" The raven-haired girl said to the shy blonde, whom of which was blushing wildly now.

"U-Umm…" Cynthia stuttered.

"Cynthia…tell us…"

"Flint and Steven!" Cynthia shouted in defeat,

Okay, now I'm confused, who on Earth are they? Flint rings a bell…but Steven…? I looked at Cynthia's blushing face, her two index fingers pressed together in shyness, Marley looked triumphant and victorious, like she would in this kind of situation. She was bending over and grinning a sly, evil grin, her eyes narrowed knowingly.

"Ah-ha…I see now, Afro-Kid and Metal-Boy liked you…" Marley spoke as if she knew the answer already, as if she were smart, but at least the attention focused on me was dying, I had a guilty feeling that Cynthia did this against her will for me. Hikari pulled away from me as someone approached me from behind.

"Hey Kotone!"

I sighed out as Chip's adolescent voice sounded. I turned around and smiled, I could faintly hear Hikari giggle fangirlishly under her breath, which caused me to nudge her with my elbow.

"Hi Chip!"

I grinned, that tingly sensation zipped through me like a shiver, and he made me feel that way. Chip walked over and hugged me around my waist, which made me laugh and hug him back, he had seemed to have forgotten last night's downside. I was pretty sure someone else hadn't. Chip put me down and grinned at me for a few seconds more, before sighing.

"What's wrong?" I asked,

"Nothing! I just can't believe that you like me so much!" Chip smiled and it grew into an excitable laugh. I had to smile back at this, but my face dropped as Silver glanced over at us from the tent, before scoffing and walking over with a false-nonchalant expression and his hands in his pockets. Chip looked behind him to see what I was looking at and locked glares with Silver, whose nose was still at a funny angle…if you can be so kind as to remember why that is, I won't thank you.

"I see you've made your decision." Silver said whilst glaring at Chip, though I knew he was talking to me.

"Yeah, he asked first…"

Chip snapped his head around to look at me wide-eyed.

"You like me? Like, _like like _me?"

"Yep."

It was true, and Chip _did_ ask first, though I couldn't stop feeling guilty, I mean, Silver _was_ kinda standing _right there._ In fact, none of them asked, it was more of an expressive thing, I could hear the girls whistle and make immature sounds, I glared at them venomously and they all ceased to open their mouths. Silver stared at me with an expression I had never seen him have, I couldn't determine it at first, because of its alien presence, though it all became clear,

Desperation.

Silver sighed out and walked away, popping his hood up over his face, his head lowered. Great, now I feel goddamn awful. Chip grinned and pulled me into another hug, his arms around my waist, I didn't know who to choose, so I went with Chip, but something ached in my heart, as if I wanted both at the same time, because I knew I couldn't break one heart, but that's how it turned out. Chip kissed my cheek and smiled, I blushed but closed my eyes, it was because I was content, yes, but I couldn't bear to look at Silver walking away, because I seemed to die a little inside as I watched my best friend seclude himself.

**-xxx-**

Later that day, at lunchtime, we were making burgers, from what Lucian and Brawly had left us, we had just enough for everyone, little did we know that when they were ready, leaving them alone with me and Chip was the worst move possible. I noticed that Chip was glancing over at the burgers every two to three seconds, I was sitting on his lap and twitching a little every time he moved his head, it grew into every second glancing, to a constant stare.

"Chip, what're you doing?" I asked with my head cocked to the side in curiosity, Chip looked at me with distant eyes, like he was looking straight through me.

"Burgers…they're calling me…" He spoke hungrily, along with his mouth watering, that I could tell from the way his mouth hung open a little.

"Eh?" I asked again, frowning in confusion. Chip looked like he was about to attack the food in front of him. He reached forward, almost hypnotised and grabbed a burger that was filled to the brim with salad, cheese and tomato ketchup. He raised it to his mouth and devoured the thing in record time, I frowned so much I had a unibrow. So it was burgers over me, eh?

"I see. You love your burgers more than you love me."

Chip looked over at me with his mouth stuffed with one burger and another in his palm at the ready.

"Nope. I love you more." Said Chip with a muffled tone. I rolled my eyes and stood up off of his lap, only to see that Chip had eaten all the burgers on the table, now there was only enough for half of us. I pointed at him accusingly and shouted.

"What the hell! You ate all of them!"

Chip stopped eating, and with a finger in his mouth, turned to look at me in the same position, his eyes gave me the whole: "Who, me?"

_Yes. You. _I thought. Chip laughed, as if he just knew what I thought,

"I can't help myself sometimes! I'm just gonna have to come clean aren't I?"

_Yes. You are. _I thought again, this guy had a serious fetish. He might as well have a cheeseburger shrine or something, maybe he already had one. Chip stood up and hugged me, his fingers were clean, and I think he just wiped them, but he had some _serious_ cheese-breath. I couldn't help but hug the one I loved back though, Chip's face edged closer to mine, I closed my eyes, expecting him to kiss me, which he did for a brief moment, then I heard footsteps behind us, and we immediately broke apart. Our arms by our sides as if we had just been bowing to each other or performed a military routine. Silver sat down in one of the fold-up chairs, the one next to Chip's, and glared daggers into the back of the tan-boy's head. Chip sat down, patting his lap like he was calling a cat. I sat on his lap just like a minute ago, Erika, who I hadn't seen much of this holiday, was carrying the sticks for a new fire, Volkner had 'accidentally' poured his drink over the previous, she looked over at me and Chip and looked almost hurt for a minute, before blushing a little and smiling lightly and placing the twigs onto the ground and running off. Marley was looking around frantically,

"Which one of you ate the burgers!" She shouted with a pointed finger at us. I grew wide eyed and retreated a little, Chip grinned at Marley.

"I did." He said, still grinning immensely. Marley looked so angry I thought steam just shot outta her ears. After that, she decided to 'punish' us both, we weren't allowed any food that evening, though Silver gave me half his share. Earning yet another glare from Chip.

**-xxx-**

I walked out of our tent at night, I honestly didn't know the time, and made my way over to the lake, nice way to clear my mind, I thought, I wasn't normally like this, but sometimes you get desperate to just forget about everything causing you pain, well, my heart was. I approached the lake bed and peered into the clear, moonlit water, and there I was, staring right at me. A wash of anger came over me and I smacked my reflection, causing it to disappear, I began to cry as all impact from the last two days came crashing down on top of me like a weight, I dropped to my knees and swore at myself, _you little bitch Kotone, you pathetic excuse for a girl, you don't deserve what you have, you little shit._ I became homesick, wanting my mother, the Pokémon I left at home beside Flygon, who soon materialised next to me, nuzzling my cheek like it did around three months ago, and New Bark Town, I wished that I hadn't had to choose anyone, everything to do with Silver and Chip would just flow gently, instead of crashing through rocks like it was now.

"Crying isn't getting you anywhere." A smooth voice sounded behind me, and another reflection appeared next to mine, it was Silver, I looked at him, he had the same sad eyes and pale appearance as I had seen earlier, his aura seemed delicate, if you made one false move and he would shatter into a million tiny pieces, well, his ego would anyway. I looked down again at my stupid red face,

"I don't care." I said back, with a couple of sniffs in between. Silver looked over at me and grabbed my hand gently and affectionately, I buried my face into my knees, I didn't need his sympathy.

"Kotone, it really kills me when you're like this…" Silver whispered, as if I wasn't meant to hear it, but I did.

"Why…? Why do you care about me so much! I've broken your heart so much, even chosen someone else over you, and you still care enough to even look at me!" I half-shouted, Silver let out a _'heh'_ and wrapped his arms around me, I pounded onto his back, shouting for him to let go, but he never did, he just held me tighter and let out a soothing '_shhh'. _It was so unlike him, it was unimaginable, and I guessed this was the Silver I never had experienced, the one that was just a defeated and crumpled piece of ego of his former self.

"I care, because I made a promise to your Mom that day, I promised I wouldn't let you be like this, and what kills me, is the fact that I'm the cause of that promise to be broken." Silver spoke in hushed tones, then through my emotional state, my heart beat faster, causing me to shout the most stupid thing,

"_Silver! I…I LOVE YOU!"_

Silver froze and pulled back to look at my face, his face full of surprise as if he didn't believe it. I got the idea that he thought I was having a laugh.

"You….You _what?_" Two voices said at the same time, Silver had said it, but I felt my heart leap into my throat as I saw Chip standing at the entrance to the lake, his face just as wide with shock as Silver's was, I was in for it now, wasn't I?

"Kotone, seriously, what?" Chip said, I remained silent, unable to say anything, so this is what would become of me, loving two people as much as each other never comes to anything good, I found that out for myself. Chip flipped his jacket hood over his head, then smiled weakly with tears coming to his eyes, I felt my heart wrench at his next words,

"_I guess you always loved him more, didn't you?"_

Silver smirked, and seemed to gain his usual self,

"I guess she did."

Chip sighed, and walked over, I braced myself for a fight between the two boys, but Chip kneeled down next to me, Silver let go of my shoulders as Chip held my hand, I looked over at him as he raised it to his lips and kissed it.

"I enjoyed what we had, it's gonna be really difficult to let you go, but I'm gonna have to, aren't I?" Chip spoke, he didn't seem angry…just completely heart broken.

"I'm sorry…" Was all I managed to say, Chip smiled again, and turned to Silver with a more serious look,

"I know she can't help her feelings, that's why I haven't ground you to a pulp by now, but hear me out, you hurt her, you're gonna have to deal with me." Chip grinned, Silver smirked even wider,

"We'll see about that."

At that, Chip walked off, returning the piece of my heart he used to own, leaving me with who I should've been with from the start.

"Silver…" I spoke, Silver looked over at me, I wiped the tears from my eyes and smiled,

"Yeah?" Silver replied, I began to laugh and cry at the same time,

"I know this sounds real corny, but…could you kiss me?" I blushed at my own cheesy words, a sheepish grin growing on my face. Silver blushed a little before leaning down and placing his lips gently onto mine.


	12. Soul-Destroying Boredom

**Konnichi Wa, Hello  
**

**Chapter Twelve**

**The Loss Of Something To Do Leads To Things I'd Rather Not Speak Of.**

**-xxx-**

Chip didn't come back to the tent until around midnight, according to my cell, I wondered what he was doing all that time, but it didn't concern me. I slept with Silver's arms around me, I didn't dare turn around, in case he was pulling some weird face, yeah, I'm odd like that. My experiences with Hikari made me so. But anyway, I woke up the next morning, realising this was our last day in Sinnoh, Brawly and Lucian would make sure we all left tomorrow, and, I would have to go back to my mother, telling her that she won her bet. Unless…I didn't tell her. That sounded like a plan to me. I sat up, removing Silver from me, and grabbed my silver flip-up cell phone, through tired, sleepy eyes I saw the time, and the reason why Chip and Silver hadn't woken up yet,

6:00AM.

_Shit_, I thought, my eyed glued open, today was going to be _long._

"Kotone…?" Silver mumbled behind me, I turned to see one eye looking over at me, the other obscured by red hair. I couldn't help but giggle at how slow he was in the morning.

"Yes, Silver?" I asked rather politely, smiling like some sweetie lolita girl. Silver gave me a blank stare, literally saying in Silver language: 'You've _got_ to be kidding me.' To hell with the kiddie act, he didn't like that. Silver sighed and buried his face into his hands, I laughed again,

"Don't worry, I wasn't actually gonna act like that, love." I continued to speak to half-asleep Silver, who actually started to rock back and forth a bit in sleepiness. He acted like he was under influence of Drowzee's hypnosis sometimes, I swear.

"Good…" He finally replied, lying flat out against the white pillow behind him, landing with a soft 'thud'. I sat in silence for a few minutes before lying back down next to him, turned over to face his side. He looked thoughtful, his eyebrows knitted together and a finger pressed to his lip, I smiled,

"What're you thinking about?" I asked, Silver turned to face me, still looking sleepy.

"You." He replied neutrally, it still made me blush.

"Why?" I asked again, I was really inquisitive this morning…

"Because…I don't think we should tell anyone about us."

"Whoa, slow down there bronco. You're saying you're gonna make it goddamn obvious, then deny it? _EH?_"

Silver sighed, I just hoped he wasn't annoyed with me.

"It's just…I don't want to be asked random questions all the time, and God knows what Crys'll do."

He had a point.

"Silver…" I spoke in a flat tone, he was making things harder for himself, as well as me.

"What? Got a problem?" He replied almost angrily, oh Kotone you've done it now!

"I don't care, I really don't care if people ask questions, because, well, it's almost as if you don't want to be seen…with me…"

That actually nearly made me cry. Damn emotions. Silver chuckled; something he _never_ does.

"That's not it at all."

"Then what the hell is it?"

Silver sighed and looked away from me. Something he does when he's thinking. I waited…and waited…until he turned to face me again.

"Silver-!" I was cut off with his lips on mine, I blushed, but didn't pull away from it, and Silver smirked and pulled away instead. I frowned and turned my back to him, because I couldn't say anything.

That was what he has planned for whenever I won't shut up, isn't it?

**-xxx-**

We were all sitting around a campfire, with a loss of something to do, Volkner stood up suddenly, his eyes widened and his hand shielding the side of his face, as if he didn't want to be seen from a certain angle.

That was exactly the case.

A teenager with a rather vibrant red afro ran into him, nearly knocking the poor guy off his feet, I recognised afro-dude, his name was Flint, and he was a disease, a big, red, disease. He wouldn't leave Volkner alone, and he was like an attention-seeking missile, which you could never get rid of.

"DUUUUDE I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN AGES!"

There's a reason for that. He's been avoiding you. Volkner sighed and closed his eyes.

"I know, you kind of moved to Sinnoh."

Flint had a look of realisation on his face.

"Oh yeah…"

By the way, Flint was a bit of a dumb asshole.

Candice stood up, a protective and bossy stance, arms akimbo, along with her puffed out cheeks,

"Flint, why're you here?"

The red afro-ed guy turned to look at her, (Because I can't find a way to describe Flint).

"Candice? That you?"

Candice gave a blank stare.

"Duh. Now, answer my question please?"

Flint grinned, oh dear lord.

"I heard some kids from Johto had gathered here, so I came to check it out; and who do I see? YOU GUYS!"

Everyone inwardly groaned. Candice frowned.

"Kay then. Let go of my boyfriend."

Flint looked at Volkner, then at Candice, he repeated the process several times before exploding with laughter.

"_You, _and _Volkner?_ Oh my god…ha-ha."

**-xxx-**

Flint decided to stay with us, which, I'm pretty sure, made all of us inwardly die. Oh well, he was staying in Sinnoh, where he had transferred to long ago. So we were only stuck with him for a couple of days. Even so, this might turn out to be one hell of a disaster. Flint kept making jokes about Candice and Volkner, it got so bad that Candice had to slap him. I noticed Hikari and Cynthia staring into someone's iPod touch. I investigated.

"N-No way! I do _not_ look like Shizuka!"

"Yes you do. Boobs and all."

This sounded odd. I walked over and Hikari pointed at me with a grin of triumph, as she screamed at me so shrilly I had to cover my ears and flinch, it hurt.

"WE HAVE FOUND REI MIYAMOTO!"

I sighed. Who the heck was that? Rei Miyamoto…I peered over the silver iPod, to see an anime that I recognised. For all the wrong reasons.

High School Of The Dead.

Two words:

Boobs and zombies. Both of which I didn't find appealing, and the fact that Hikari was on one of her 'perverted anime of the week' sprees, I fell victimised. Again. Yes, Hikari loves ecchi anime. She's a tad perverted. No, she's massively perverted- beyond sheer belief.

"Which one is Shizuka?" I asked, so I could at least drag Cynthia away from Hikari's accusations of being a look-a-like.

Hikari pointed to a woman with long, blonde hair, a ripped skirt, and massive boobs. Like, unnaturally massive, she looked almost cross eyed- rather stupid, I thought- and, as much as I hate to admit, she actually did look like Cynthia. I looked up at Hikari and raised my eyebrows.

"Why do you have a fetish for ecchi?"

Hikari blushed and grinned, clutching her precious iPod to her chest,

"It's always so romantic…"

Dude, it's full of boobs and zombies, with a minimal amount of romance, I only watched it so I could see the violence…

Okay, you got me, I was curious as to why it was rated eighteen. The red symbol with 'teen 18+' makes you curious. Surely you've all experienced that. And…I happen to like apocalyptic stuff so…(Yes, I know this is a failed attempt to make myself seem like I'm not a pervert, but really, you should check out what Hikari watches…I'm really not a pervert. Things disturb me.)

"Okay, so who's this Rei?" I asked, my eyes still rolled to heaven, Hikari looked down at her iPod and my mouth went agape. Before me, was a strawberry-blonde girl, she had the shortest skirt known to man, it was so short Gods would be ashamed of it. She had bangs like a venonat's antennae, and a gun in her hands, she had fairly big breasts- as to be expected from ecchi anime, and that was about it. She did _not look like me._ I thumped Hikari playfully- but hard- and left.

**-xxx-**

Even later than that, we all were slowly dying. Boredom was the worst feeling known to the human universe, period. I actually wanted to go home this time, until Chip, who had been strangely quiet until now, grinned manically and threw his plastic soda bottle on the floor, laughing, I looked at him as if he were a madman- I had every damn right.

"I can cure us!"

Flint turned from terrorising Volkner and looked at Chip directly. Named tan guy grinned wider, it touched his ears, I swear.

"How?"

"A dare game- Spin the bottle to be exact!"

Oh dear lord. Now everyone crowded Chip's discarded bottle and sat. Silver and I followed, this would have to do before I died from sheer boredom. Just as we sat down, we heard two voices behind us, Chip stood up and waved frantically to someone behind me, I turned to see the bishie Morty and brunette Leaf, both mentioned people waved back.

"Hey, Morty! Leaf!" Chip shouted at them, they now definitely knew who we were.

"Hey guys! What're you up to?" Morty replied to Chip calmly, a soft and gentle smile on his face.

"We're playing Spin The Bottle! Wanna join?" Chip still half-yelled. My ears started to hurt- the poor people were only a few meters apart from us.

"Sure!" Leaf chimed in before Morty, leaving the aforementioned blonde with a slight gaping mouth, he looked like a Magikarp. I giggled at the thought of him having the orange Pokémon for a head. Silver then pulled me onto his lap randomly, his arms coiled around my middle and his hair tickling the back of my neck, he kissed the side of my neck softly and gently, triggering a blush from me and a little chuckle from him. Someone was happy. I could see Hikari squealing like the little hopeless romantic she was. Oh joy. Sometimes I felt like thumping her. Morty and Leaf sat down, adding to the circle, Morty flicked his eyes to me and Silver, gave us an unreadable look, and then turned his attention to the bottle once more, I shrugged it off, the guy seemed pretty weird to me from what I had seen of him. Silver seemed to sigh angrily at the blonde's little glance. Seriously?

"Who wants to go first?" Chip asked, Hikari looked at me, smirked, and before anyone could say anything:

"If you're already together with the person the bottle chooses- you'll use tongues."

I felt extreme hate for her, burning fury and embarrassment presented themselves to me. I shook my head, I heard Silver _'hn' _as he kissed the back of my neck- he was doing this on purpose- getting reactions, it was succeeding to say the least- I became even redder.

"Great idea!" Chip replied, grinning at me and Candice, I sighed in contempt. How did they _both know? _And if Hikari knew, the whole camp did. Oh wait- I was on his lap. Well that plan to keep it a secret failed. Silver leaned over to my ear, and whispered softly,

"We don't have to-"

I smacked his arm.

"They'll be able to tell," I snapped. Silver remained quiet. "And besides, I can tell you want to."

Silver chuckled, I'll have to get used to that- it wasn't usual.

"You got me."

I blushed even harder than before, if that was possible. Hikari crawled over to the bottle, flicked it, and it spun around on the grass, I laughed as the bottle went flying out into the open field, carried by the wind. Barry and Hibiki made a mad dash to get it, they fell over numerous times. Barry kept screaming that 'he had it' and then obviously hadn't. Hibiki kinda danced around making dazed noises. Yeah…we weren't getting the bottle back anytime soon. But as soon as that thought crossed my mind, Volkner stood up, walked up to the two idiots, shot them both looks before walking over and picking the bottle up with no effort, taking it back over to us, and the two perverted retards followed suit. Candice found some rocks and placed them inside the bottle, to use as a weight. The game was on again. Hikari spun the bottle once more, everyone tensed and all fell silent, watching the plastic lump intently…

Until it landed on Barry.

"SCORE!" The blonde shouted, Hikari facepalmed. I didn't blame her. Before Hikari could say anything, Barry ran over, tackled her to the ground and kissed her, evidently, to say he had taken a liking to her was an understatement. A _big_ one. Hikari went stiff for the first few seconds- maybe a minute, until she obviously fell into it, wrapping her arms around his neck and closing her eyes. I giggled, along with a few others, until the two broke apart, obvious embarrassment marked on their faces with red tinges, Barry returned to his place, losing the sugar rush he had only minutes ago. I had never seen anything like it. Barry leaned over and silently spun the plastic bottle, it turned and turned until it landed on Erika- who was sitting directly next to him. Erika blushed and the scene almost repeated itself, I think Barry was on some kind of perverted kissing-spree or something…or he had a fetish. I don't know. I looked around for a few minutes before hearing:

"Ch-Ch-Ch-Chip?"

Erika got Chip, I almost laughed. It was so obvious that she liked him, and the guy was just as aware of it as everyone else was. Erika leaned over and placed her lips on his, blushing so much I swear she had no blood anywhere else in her body. It only lasted a few seconds, but I was sure it meant the world to her…oh hell, Silver's turned me into some kind of love-guru, and that's not a great thing to be. Damn my feelings for you Silver, damn it all. Soon my thoughts were interrupted and I felt some familiar lips make contact with my own,

And they weren't Silver's.

I looked down to see Chip pull away from me, grinning, I smiled back, Silver grunted. I looked up to see him glaring daggers at Chip, I could feel the murderous intent on his face, and I just hoped Chip would live to see another day. I placed my hand atop Silver's, rubbing the back of his hand with my thumb gently, he seemed to relax as Chip returned to his place, I span the bottle between my two fingers, watching the hollow plastic as it twirled, and twirled…and twirled…until it finally slowed down…and lo' and behold, it landed on me, but guess who's lap I was sitting on…I turned to face Silver in his lap, and laced my arms around his neck, he held me tighter around my waist and pressed his lips to mine, I blushed insanely, as expected, and a few wolf whistles came from the circle, I closed my eyes, and pretended they weren't there. To my surprise, it actually worked, and I fell into what I was doing, then Hikari's words echoed in my head:

_If you're already together, you have to use tongues._

I became frightened, should I do this? Should I not? It was too much, until Silver sort of sighed and ran his tongue over my lip, I blushed even more, and froze, he poked my mouth with it, I frowned and opened my mouth, I'm not gonna go into details. But let's just say there was a lot of jeering when we broke apart. I blushed _even harder_ and turned away from Silver in his lap, he chuckled smugly and rested his chin on my shoulder. I saw Hikari look at me sideways, also giving the smuggies. Silver's turn. He repeated the motion of spinning the bottle and it landed on Leaf. I felt a burning anger take me over as he leaned over and kissed her. I felt like mutilating the brunette- even though she hadn't done anything wrong, but I. Didn't. Care. She would die. She would die _a painful death_-

Wait- it was over. Phew.

Silver came back to me, and Leaf spun the bottle, smiling happily, well, now I really felt like punching the living crap out of her. Anyway, it landed on Chip- again- so they kissed, and Leaf seemed to get into it before Chip pulled away, she returned to her place, rather flushed I might add, and flicked her hair out of her face.

The process repeated itself several times, before it came to Morty's turn. He was quiet, and seemed determined, his Gengar came from around his back, and it scared me because I didn't know it was there. I closed my eyes, I began to grow sleepy, until I felt fingertips placed gently on my cheek, I opened my eyes to be met with a pair soft lavender ones, Morty had rolled me, I closed my eyes once more and his lips made contact with mine, it was perfectly gentle, it was nothing like anything I had ever felt before, my hands dared to betray me, and I let them, they laced around Morty's neck, he pulled away and stroked my cheek with his thumb, his bishie-ness staring me right in the face, he said nothing, unhooked my arms, gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek and returned to his place. I gulped, whoever had him for a man was a lucky bitch. But, I knew there would only be Silver in my life, and that made me happier. I looked up at named and he _hn-ed_, I frowned and turned away again, he was either pissed at me, or Morty, I'd bet on the latter.

Later, everyone was sitting around the fire, Barry was eyeing Volkner carefully, and making sure he didn't pour his drink over the fire again, like the previous time. Nobody knew why Volkner did that- it was still a mystery. Candice was latching onto Volkner's arm, whom of which didn't seem to particularly care, but he had his arm around her nonetheless. Riley and Cynthia were at the gate, looking up at the sky, Hikari and Barry were being closer than usual, even though it involved a lot of thumping. And me? I was happily drinking hot chocolate, sitting on a fold-up chair next to Silver, I was content to say the least. Flint was pissed from never being kissed in spin the bottle, he sat next to the fire like a grumpy child refusing to go to bed. Occasionally flickering his eyes to Volkner and Candice, and snickering a little, I felt sorry for the blonde. I can still remember the shock when I found out the truth about Volkner's hair, that he never gelled it…oh hell, whatever. Hikari stood up and motioned for me to go over to her, I complied. We walked into the storage shed and she turned the lights on.

"Kotone…how long have you been with Silver?"

Oh great, lecture time! This navy-haired girl was worse than my mother sometimes.

"About a day…"

"Don't you think you're a bit too close?"

"Hikari! He's my boy-"

"I know. But I mean, you're joined at the hip…that's not good, soon, you'll break up, and then you'll become depressed…" -She looked down at the floor-"Because, believe me, I know how that feels…and I don't want that to happen to my best friend…"

My eyes widened, she had had a boyfriend before? I placed my hand on her shoulder, she looked up at me,

"Lucas. Remember him?"

I nodded, Lucas was the guy that moved to northern Sinnoh not a year ago. He was Hikari's best friend…and now I realised why they were so close.

"Yeah…he moved…"

"Mmm-Hmm, it broke me apart. All I can say is, don't let it happen to you Kotone…"

**-xxx-**

Night time, the last night I was at camp for, I laid down next to Silver, who hugged me, his head on my bare shoulder, breathing down my neck.

"Silver…?" I called, Silver opened his eyes and laid his head on his pillow, staring directly at me,

"What?" He replied finally, I looked down at my hands which were placed on my lap, in-between me and him,

"Are you…mad at me?"

Silver raised his eyebrows, brought a hand to my chin and made me look at him, I blushed as his mercury eyes bore into mine, he looked tired, and almost upset, and I couldn't look away.

"No." He replied coldly. I winced a little at that,

"But…you look upset…"

Silver scoffed and let go of my chin, I sighed sadly and turned away, well, I tried to, but he stopped me,

"I'm mad at those _two._" His voice grew colder, almost harsh, and it sent a shiver down my spine, even his breath seemed cold.

"W-Which two?" I stuttered, Silver held me close, and gritted his teeth,

"The tan-fuck and the bishie," Silver spat, in other words- Morty and Chip- he was mad at them- "-why can't you just be left alone?"

_I wonder that too…_ I thought, I smiled and looked at him straight in the face cupping his cheeks in my hands and rubbing them with my two thumbs,

"But…" -I smiled wider- "I love you…" Silver's lips twitched, I didn't know what he was trying to do, but then I saw for the first time in my life:

Silver's smile.

It was soft, and gentle, it was abnormal, but it suited him. And I loved it. Silver leaned forwards and kissed my lips,

Hikari was right- this was too close for my own good.

_Way_ too close.


	13. Red Hair Nearly Turns Brown in Rain

**Okay guys, here's the thing. I forgot to tell you all this but I'm **_**English.**_ **Our schools are different from American ones, since most of my readers are from the USA I might have confused some of you with the whole tutor room thing. But yeah, I'm not crazy. I just spell things the American-English way because I knew most people reading are from the US.**

**Anyway, I'm the worst writer ever in terms of updating and here's the next chapter.**

**-xxx-**

**The Hell Known As High School Chapter Thirteen.**

**Wake Me Up When September Ends.**

Well, today was the last morning here. _Whoopee, packing! _

Anyway. That doesn't matter.

The one thing on my mind was informing my mother that Silver was my boyfriend now. _Fun._ She would either freak out, or hug me to all Hell- Arceus only knew my fate. Please Arceus, _please_ make it be the least painful fate- I wouldn't be able to live otherwise. I was letting this play on my mind as I sat next to the breakfast campfire, sitting rather like Sasuke Uchiha- fingers interlocked and a glaring but thoughtful look crossing my eyes, my elbows on my knees. Everyone seemed to avoid me. I didn't blame them. I heard footsteps behind me and Crys - who was sitting by Hibiki on a mat - glared menacingly. I then could work out who was behind me.

"Silver."

"Kotone."

For some reason, things had tensed between Silver and I, for a reason undiscovered, the relationship had turned fragile, but was somehow still intact - hence the rather cold greeting. Silver sat next to me, mimicking my position, well, it was _his_ usual stance. Except this time, his eyes were fixed onto me. I felt a shiver at the look and continued to stare at a discreet twig by the crackling fire. I felt a slight tugging at one of my pigtails, and my vision flickered over to my right to catch one glimpse of Silver playing with my chestnut locks. It made a fierce blush attack my cheeks, one I _really_ didn't like. Silver began to run his fingers through my pigtail, making my head lean towards him from the constant tugging when he ran his hand through a small tangle. Plus, I had no idea if this tugging was accidental or not, now I looked I was leaning on his shoulder. Thanks for that, dear, dear, wonderful boyfriend.

We were both now earning some interesting looks. I pretended that I hadn't noticed my leaning. Why? I have no fucking clue. My eyes scanned the campsite, I could see a silhouette of Candice sitting on Volkner through the blonde's tent, it looked like she was straddling him. My blush grew at the thought and I found a new location to gaze upon, Chip was poking one of the pieces of bacon frying on the metal frame above the fire, a look of anticipation and hunger played in his eyes, he looked around a couple of times before picking a piece up and shoving the thing into his mouth in it's entirety. I found him to be interesting, so I watched as he ate another, and another, and another before he had eaten the lot - by this time everyone had noticed what he was doing and were giving him glares of doom. Chip sweat dropped, grinning sheepishly and running into the shed, turning the coolbag inside out before finding a last packet of raw bacon rashers. Hikari was glaring intensely, not at Chip, but at Barry's hand, which was hovering over her shoulder. It looked like lasers were about to explode from the raven-haired girl's eyes and slice the guy's hand off. Heh.

Just as I looked away a crack of skin-smacking-skin shattered the glum silence.

"Jeez, woman! How hard can ya hit?" Barry's slightly pained voice rung, followed by Hikari's held back shrill screeching, "Hard enough," She started, "You can't just keep your freaking hands to yourself, can you?"

A few of us winced at her voice. Barry grinned sheepishly, "Heh, sorry about that." the blonde spoke whilst rubbing his lovely red hand print on his cheek. I rolled my eyes as Hikari hit him again, unlocking my fingers and giving into Silver's tugs, I leant my head onto his shoulder in sheer defeat, I even smiled a little as the whole atmosphere relaxed around us. Silver's hand timidly rested on the curve of my waist, as if he was entering a dangerous zone, which he kinda was in a way. I returned the touch by wrapping both of my arms around his middle, I felt secure. Then I realised something:

Where was Morty and Leaf? Had they already left the campsite? Sure, Flint left a few hours ago, thank Arceus, but I didn't see those two go.

"Silver?" I asked, looking up at named redhead.

"What is it?" he replied monotonously, it kinda sounded like a statement.

"Where did Morty go?"

Silver froze and his fingers dug into my waist slightly, then I realised what I had done 'wrong'

_Crap! _I thought, _I forgot to ask about Leaf! Stupid bitch! What'd you do that for!_

Silver remained silent, his mercury eyes wide and slightly surprised, and believe me, it takes a _lot_ to surprise Silver. He looked down at me, his crimson hair licking his cheek on the left side, a frown crossing his features and pulling me closer to him. I looked down, relinquishing my hold around him and placing my hands in my lap. I began to play with my thumbs.

"Sorry." I murmured, eyes transfixed on my battling fingers. Silver continued to stare at me and I began to receive an uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. Soon the tension was at it's peak and I broke.

"What is it? You're just…staring at me!"

Silver sighed heavily. I felt his breath tickle my ear as he leaned down and lightly kissed there.

"Another one to steal you away, huh…"

**-xxx-**

"Kotone! Slow down! I'm gonna fall off this thing!" Hikari screamed as Flygon descended a little, the dragon Pokemon smirked. I was going through physical pain as Hikari began to kick around, digging her nails into my stomach from where she was holding onto me for dear, dear life. I felt like throwing her into a tree.

"Calm down! We're nearly there, jeez, maybe I really should've left you to yourself in Sinnoh!"

Hikari shook her head violently and finally shut up, thank Arceus.

We landed outside my house, soon after, Silver landed Dragonite next to us. Hikari screeched in fear of the winged beast and clung to me. Silver rolled his eyes as my mother ran out of the house, hugging the living Hell out of me. I gasped for air - trying to give her at least an idea of what she was doing to me, she eventually let go.

"Kotone honey! Oooh my little Combee's come home!"

No shit, Sherlock. I didn't say a thing as she continued to crush me into small pieces. Mom glanced over at Silver, who was standing next to me, he opened his mouth to say something, but I glared at him and mouthed:

"If you say anything about us, your fate will be worse than mine."

Silver closed his mouth back.

**-xxx-**

Later, Hikari had gone and it was just Silver and I sitting on my bed, Mom promised not to disturb us, however, she still had no idea about our relationship - we had both decided to keep it a secret from her. I, for one, was slightly frightened of what her reaction would be, but then something hit me.

What about Silver's parents? I had no clue about them, or where they lived, what they did, or even their names…

Silver snapped his fingers in front of my face, I had been staring at him during my little thought session, it caused me to blush quite heavily.

"What were you thinking about?" Silver said monotonously. I blushed even harder,

"N-Nothing…Just spaced out a little…" I replied, making it obvious that I _was_ thinking about _something_. Silver raised an eyebrow at me, I sighed in embarrassment. The redhead chuckled and hugged me, I smiled a little, wrapping my arms around him and leaning my head onto his chest. I found myself sitting in his lap and looking up at him, Silver looked my face over in thought, which I found quite cute, his eyes came to stare at my lips, brushing strands of hair away from them. I pursed my lips slightly, making sure there wasn't anything stuck to them or anything like that - if he was gonna do what I thought he was, it would have made it a bit more attractive. My Combusken was glaring at the back of Silver's head from the other side of the room, I'm surprised Silver couldn't actually feel it's fiery gaze. _'Must be still sore from not being in Sinnoh with me…' _I thought, the orange chicken-like Pokemon crept up behind Silver, who was still running his finger over my bottom lip in a soft and gentle stroke, and without warning, Combusken pushed him over with - what looked like - a hi-jump kick. My mind forgot to process that I was falling onto the floor.

With Silver on top of me.

The Pokemon began to have a giggle fit as my face flooded with colour, Silver's face was inches from mine, his hair lapping at my cheeks with the way it flicked at the ends. I looked side to side frantically, both his hands were on the floor either side of my head. I gulped, loudly. There was only one way this could get any worse, and as that crossed my thoughts, I looked to the door; nobody there. Thank _Arceus_ for the lock on my door.

Wait, was my door actually locked?

I shouldn't be thinking about that. My boyfriend was staring down at me whilst being in the most awkward position, and I couldn't move an inch. I looked back up at Silver, who was giving me one of his rare smiles, the smiles I loved to pieces - ones that made me melt inside. Silver moved a lock of hair away from my eyes gently, before tracing his hand down to softly cup my cheek, his thumb stroking it lightly. I softly laughed and moved his hood over his head, the charcoal black shaded his face, but I loved how his eyes would shine brighter that way, bottomless, mercury orbs that I would just stare into. I smiled up at him, my fingers lacing themselves into his crimson hair and leaning my head up, closing my eyes and bringing my lips to his, I blushed heavily, but I could've cared less about it. I could feel his smile against my lips as he wrapped his arms around me, holding me up to sit in his lap, I was so lost in this that I didn't notice Silver running his hands up the back of my shirt to gently caress my lower back, his hood was away from his head, so then I could fully entangle my fingers in his hair, I opened my eyes to meet his closed ones, he was truly lost in me, and I was the same with him. Soon, his lips became dominant over mine, and I found myself beginning to lose air, and I pulled back, my eyes closed and concentrating on gaining oxygen again - loudly, too. I slowly opened my eyes to meet Silver's, I then looked over at the clock, it read 10PM, it was Sunday, so I deduced that it would probably be time to get to sleep. Silver wasn't staying over, and I knew I would feel a little lonely without him, so as he was about to leave out the front door, I ran up and threw my arms around his neck, he was taken aback for a second, blinking his eyes in surprise before hugging me back, my Mom was watching us, and I could see her smile.

"Kotone, let the poor guy go, he can't stay with you forever…" Mom spoke, and I blushed, taking my arms from around Silver and backing away slightly, Mom still had no idea about our relationship, and I knew she would find out about it eventually - she probably had thought about it - but I didn't want obsessive squeals just yet. Silver flashed me one of his smiles for a split second, and left, black hood up and walking down the sidewalk of New Bark.

**-xxx-**

"_Kotone! Get up! __**Now!**__"_

I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling. Then at the clock.

At seeing the time I dashed out of bed, got dressed, and tried to run out of the door, before realising I had left my bag. This caused me to make a dash for the bus stop, Hikari was sitting on the bench, and Silver was sitting next to her. This made me run faster, I reached the bus shelter and pulled Silver into a hug, Hikari giggled as she watched us. Silver sighed and hugged me back, he always was slow in the morning.

After lunch, I had games class. Hoo boy, this was gonna be _Hell._ Crys was still sore from what happened to her, and the two pinkies were gonna back her up with this. I always had hated games anyway. I reached the changing rooms and gingerly walked over to a bench, opening my bag and taking out the games uniform. I had found out _finally_ that pinky no. 1 (The one that usually chews gum and has unnaturally long hair) was called Sakura. Pinky no. 2, was called Maylene, she was short and I mean that, _she was short,_ she would usually have a plaster across her nose, and short, cherry hair that would flick up at the ends. Crys was in my games class too, along with Maylene and Sakura, which was about seventy-percent of the reason why games was Hell, and today would be even worse. Because Crys was _jealous of me._ While I was thinking about them, they entered the room, and all fell silent, our games teacher, Miss Glacia, hadn't arrived yet. They could do _anything _to me, and Silver wasn't here to stop them. Crys took a glance at me and stood on her tip-toes, as if she was trying to point out a fault with me, I had taken my shirt off; to put it simply I wasn't exactly _cheerleader_ skinny. Sakura and Maylene had their noses in the air either side of the aqua-haired girl, Crys' eyes travelled to my waist and she snorted,

"Fat bitch…" she murmured as she and her followers finally carried on walking. I gained a twist in my stomach as I caught her words - they hurt, a _lot._ But I was too passive to start a fight. I wanted to, but I knew it would give me no gain whatsoever. Hikari was on the bench too, and glared over at Crys, burning acidic holes into the back of her head.

Hikari turned her head and whispered to me, "Don't worry, it's because you've got what she wants, and she knows she's never going to take it from you." I felt slightly comforted at her words, but it didn't stop it hurting. Soon after we all got changed, Miss Glacia entered the room, and we were led outside.

We were soon running laps of the school field, getting ready to play football in the rain. This sounded like great fun. We were to pick our teams, Crys only cared about the boys also playing the same game in the next field. Ms. Glacia assigned us team captains. Guess what? I was one, and Crys was another. It was as if she sensed our hate for eachother - you see, teachers don't see it as proper lethal I'm-going-to-kill-you-where-you-stand-hatred, they see at a little fluffy skippy rivalry and it'll make a good football game. Two words to that - Bull. Shit.

I was going to die. _Quickly at that._

We picked our teams, I had pretty much all my friends in mine, and all of my enemies in the other, the three enemies standing out the most were Maylene, Sakura and Crys. I should've seen this coming. The game started and Crys kicked the ball to Sakura, who stuck her arm out and winded a defending Hikari before shooting and scoring. Cynthia was in goal, and she was freaking out, scared of the ball flying toward her. I snapped my head over to Ms. Glacia, she was idly chatting with Brawly who was teaching the boys, Glacia was oblivious to the fact that Hikari was holding her stomach and trying to breathe. I shook my head and cursed as I ran over to my navy-haired friend. Hikari sat down cross-legged and clutched her middle, wincing. I kneeled down beside her and Glacia ran over,

"Hikari? Are you alright?" The blonde woman frantically spoke, inspecting Hikari's every move.

"N-No…"

Glacia asked what happened, Sakura shot Hikari a poisonous glare and Hikari looked up in thought, what could she say? The raven-haired girl said Sakura accidentally kicked the ball at her stomach. Sakura walked off proudly - I felt like slapping her. Glacia told Hikari to sit out, Barry was looking over at Hikari from the other field, he looked really worried for her. Brawly yelled at him to come back and he did so. I ran into the game, instantly seizing the ball and legging it halfway down the field before Crys stood in front of me, and just as I walked past, kicked the back of my knee, I heard a clicking noise, and I tripped over the ball, landing face first into the grass, and I rolled over, biting my lip and trying my hardest not to cry from the pain.

"_Kotone!_" I heard from one of the boys, I looked over and saw Silver running at full speed towards me, he knelt down, panic slightly obvious on his face, of course, he wouldn't let it appear there, or he would look like an idiot according to him. Crys was about to walk away when Silver stood up, glaring at the girl, and clamping his hand down on her shoulder.

"Don't even think about it, you foul bitch." He spat, Crys froze up and Brawly yelled at Silver to come back, Glacia was by my side, not sure whether to tend to me, or send Silver back to Brawly. Personally, I was intrigued as to what Silver was going to do. Crys turned to him and tried to glare up at him.

"I didn't do shit to her."

Glacia looked horrified. "Crystal! Don't you _dare_ use that language towards another student!"

Silver narrowed his eyes and took his hand from Crys' shoulder. I felt scared that Silver would punch her, and I blurted out,

"Silver, please, don't!"

Silver looked over at me, and gestured to Crys, "She might've just broken your leg, and you tell me not to fuck her up when she deserves it so fucking badly! She's done so much shit to you that I can't take it anymore! I don't give a shit if she's a girl, she's going down if she even _dares_ to-"

"Silver! That's enough!" I shouted, I stood up, limping slightly, that meant that my leg wasn't as bad as it felt, "I don't care what happens to _her, _I don't want anything to happen to _you_ if you do this!"

Silver narrowed his eyes at me, before walking back to Brawly. Glacia sighed with relief, before looking at Crys and giving her a half-hour detention, I felt smug at the horrified look on Crys' face.

**-xxx-**

I was standing outside the P.E office at the end of the school day, waiting for Silver to come out from his detention. I had already been listening to shouting from Brawly, Glacia and some disapprovals from other teachers who think they can butt in. I then heard Brawly pick up a phone, and dial a number, he was calling Silver's parents. All was silent for around five minutes until Brawly said to Silver, "Are your parents out?"

"No. Dad's busy and never answers the phone anyway; Mom left the house when I was three, and never came back."

There was a stunned silence before Brawly left a voicemail, saying about what happened and then apparently turned to Silver again,

"Okay, you can go now."

Silver sighed and walked out of the office, I looked over at him, opening my mouth to ask about his parents, before I decided that it must be still a sensitive and awkward subject, I closed my mouth back. Silver shot me a glance before standing by me,

"You're okay, right?" He asked me, my leg was actually fine, there wasn't any pain at all, I guessed that it was just a cramp or something.

"Yeah, it's fine…"

We walked out of school, and began to walk through a park, not wanting to take the bus this time. Rain was lightly falling and I regretted taking a walk instantly. The both of us continued to walk in silence before my left leg gave way and I fell to the pavement, it hurt like hell, and I unintentionally yelled out in pain on the ground, hugging my leg as the rain began to hammer down, so much it started to sting my bare arms, Silver picked me up bridal style and carried me under a tree,

"I thought you said your leg was okay?" Silver said monotonously, I sighed and crossed my arms as he set me down on the grass, the tree was a shield from the rain due to it's thick winding branches and bunched leaves, and I clutched my leg, feeling tears sting my eyes from the pain as I began to cry. Silver sighed and took his jacket off, draping it over my shoulder and reaching into my bag, taking my iPod out.

"D-Don't you dare go through my bag…" I managed to stutter, Silver rolled his eyes and chuckled, pushing one headphone into my ear, and the other into his own. I could hear the familiar clicks of selection, and a small guitar riff began to play, and I recognised it instantly, but I still cried, and Silver held me around my waist, leaning down to my ear, and softly sang,

"Summer has come and passed…

The innocent can never last…

Wake me up, when September ends…"

I sniffled, and continued to listen, leaning my head onto his shoulder, I could hear him over the music, and he was singing it perfectly, I closed my eyes,

"Like my fathers, come to pass,

Seven years has gone so fast…

Wake me up, when September ends…"

I closed my eyes, and reached for my iPod, turning it off, I just wanted to listen to him, and him alone, that was perfect.

"Here comes, the rain again,

Falling from the stars…

Drenched in my pain again,

Becoming who we are…"

I smiled and stopped crying, before opening my mouth and butting in before him,

"_As my memory rests, _

_But never forgets what I've lost,_

_Wake me up, when September ends…"_

Silver chuckled, I decided that this would be a duet, even though I had an awful voice, I felt happy singing to him, I smiled and wrapped my arms around his middle as he rocked me gently,

"Summer has come and passed,

The innocent can never last…

Wake me up, when September ends…"

"_Ring out the bells again,_

_Like we did when Spring began…_

_**Wake me up, when September ends…"**_

"Here comes the rain again,

Falling from the stars,

Drenched in my pain again…

_**Becoming who we are…"**_

"_As my memory rests,_

_But never forgets what I lost…._

_Wake me up, when September ends…"_

We both looked at eachother, and Silver cupped my cheek with his hand, his thumb gently stroking over it, we smiled at eachother and sang together,

"_**Summer has come and passed,**_

_**The innocent can never last…**_

_**Wake me up, when September ends…"**_

"_Like my fathers…_

Come to pass…

_**Twenty years has gone so fast…**_

_Wake me up, when September ends…_

Wake me up, when September ends…

_**Wake me up, when September ends…"**_

**-xxx-**

**So there, update.**

**By the way, **

This was Silver singing.

_This was Kotone singing._

_**And this was both of them together.**_

**(Just in case you were a tad confused. XD)**


	14. Love Sucks And Then You Die

**Konnichi Wa, Hello  
**

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Love Sucks and Then You Die**

**-XxX-**

Once the rain let up, Silver picked me up onto his back, preparing to carry me back to my own home. I _really_ didn't want to be seen like this, on the back of my boyfriend and weighing him down like an obese elephant on the back of a stick insect. It didn't help that Silver managed to convince me that he would, and could, carry my bags. The rain began again, and it started to dribble down the back of my neck like an icy fingernail. I squeaked slightly and clenched my fists, making Silver look back at me, smirking,

"What?"

I frowned hard at him, his smirk still plastered across that smug little face of his, "Nothing. I just need to get out of this rain." I looked up at the sky; it was a smooth grey sheet doming over us, I felt claustrophobic thinking like that – so I soon focused on something else. The nearest thing to me was the back of Silver's head, his now darkened and wet red hair plastered to the sides of his face and back of his neck. I couldn't get around the fact that this was once only my best friend, and not who he was to me now – he was a completely new person to me, I saw Silver in a new light, and to tell the truth: I loved it. My mother still had _no_ idea about my exact relationship with the redhead, but that was okay.

Silver and I got to the end of New Bark, before I realised that this was where my house was, and that I wouldn't see him until Monday. My mind began to ring with panic as I clutched his clothing tighter, not wanting to let go and be back with my Mom, unless he came with me.

Now that's an idea.

"Silver?" I asked, leaning my chin onto his shoulder, he looked back and grunted in question, "What?"

"Could you…stay over?" I murmured into his neck, his now slick, wet and almost maroon hair moving softly against my cheek. Silver looked back at me, flashing one of his rare smiles for a moment (of which were becoming more common around me) before nodding, "Sure."

Silver walked up to my home, the rain now pelting heavily down onto the windows. I slid from Silver's back, taking my schoolbag and grabbing my keys. I could feel Silver's gaze, despite him being out of sight, and it send a lengthy shiver down my spine as I opened the door with a not-so-graceful twist of the key.

In my room, the rain pelted harder against my bedroom window, pattering in hard, stubborn waves as if it were trying to intrude. I had Silver's heavy head laid in my lap, my legs crossed sitting on my bed and my eyes staring vacantly out of the window, watching the small droplets dribble down the glass panes that separated us from outside. Silver shifted slightly, and I immediately looked down at him, he was staring up at me in a way I had never seen – it was as if he were troubled, and was contemplating whether to tell me something or not. This made a pang of dread twist my stomach, and I suddenly became very afraid of the words in his head. The boy's hair had become its normal bright crimson and its normal shape; lightly dusted to one side to rest delicately on his dark eyelashes, shielding the striking mercury orbs from discomfort.

_Silver, what are you thinking…?_ I thought to myself as Silver looked away from me, turning his head to look back down at the floor. I heard him murmur quietly so my ears didn't catch it, I was glad that I didn't hear. I yawned, lifting Silver's head up off of my lap so I could lie down next to him, swiping my hand from underneath his head before hearing a thud as he hit it on the headboard. Colourful language ensued as I just sat there, laughing as much as I wanted to.

"Fucking hell, thanks for being sympathetic, bitch!" Silver cursed at me, holding his head and gritting his teeth, I noticed his cheeks were stained a slight red, which made the hilarity increase,

"S-Sorry! I can't help it…!" I choked out barely, covering my mouth and shutting my eyes. After a few minutes, I calmed down, and Silver lay down close to me, grunting from still being in some pain. I looked at him, smiling, "You're okay, right?"

Silver frowned, rubbing the top of his head, "Of course I am," he closed his eyes, and faced me, "I was fine from the start."

"Don't cry in pain when you hit your head on the headboard then," I grinned smugly, letting out a slight giggle, "because it makes you look like a sissy."

The redhead growled slightly before keeping calm and giving a slight 'humph' as he laid his head onto my shoulder. We laid there in silence, listening to the rain before the front door opened, my Mom walking into the house and calling my name. I didn't reply. She shouted up the staircase, and Silver closed his eyes, pretending to sleep. I could tell something was wrong, as if something awful was on his mind – I would (eventually) get to the bottom of it. Mom came in, and smiled,

"I knew it."

I blushed, realizing where Silver's head was, "Uh, knew what?" I stuttered, trying to shift Silver's head off of my shoulder without rolling him off of the bed – it wasn't gonna happen. Mom's smile transformed into a smirk as she took note of my discomfort, she had worked it out.

"How long has this been going on?"

I blushed harder, staining my cheeks with red, "A, uh…few…um…" I couldn't force the words out no matter how hard I tried, and my mother began to laugh. I stared at her, alienated by her laughter, she seemed too happy. _Too_ happy.

"I knew it was only a matter of time!" she breathed out, inducing more overly-joyful laughter. I panicked, she's gonna tell _everyone_, all of her friends, everyone in the damn street! Oh god… "This is too cute!" mom added, at that, Silver's eyes opened and he frowned.

"Mom, please…please just shut up…"

Mom calmed down, and smiled, "I see nothing wrong with it," she walked to the door, "Have fun Honey…"

**-XxX-**

A few months passed, and to say the least, they were the happiest months I'd ever had. Crystal hadn't bothered me, nor Sakura, or Maylene for that matter. They had been setting their sights on Chip, who was occupied with Erika, whom of which had gotten closer, and eventually started going out. Candice had been babbling on and on about Volkner, she even went to such lengths as to say she wanted to freaking marry him. Morty and Leaf had been keeping in touch, and said that they would visit Johto someday, and for mine and Silver's sake, I wished that they wouldn't come anytime soon. All was perfect, nothing was going wrong, and everything remained the same.

Oh how I wanted it to never stop. But, as always, _something_ has to ruin it.

This was the time where everything seemed to crash.

"Hey, Kotone," Silver called to me, we were walking through the park, hand in hand, (I had told him to get used to it, believe me, it took a while.)

I looked up at him, "Hm?"

Silver squeezed my hand gently, "Do you want to come over?" he asked, looking away from me.

I looked up at him sideways as we walked; I had never been to where he lived, let alone inside his house. Something told me that whatever he was hiding before, it was gone or he was comfortable with me seeing it. "Sure…" I replied, a little uncertain, but I tried my hardest to hide it. We walked through the park until we began to walk through an entirely different environment – it was fancy, and the houses were absolutely huge. I thought that this _couldn't_ be where Silver lived, but we reached the end of a cul-de-sac, and there was Silver's home: the biggest, most abnormally expensive house I'd ever seen. Lush grass grew happily either side of a pebbledash path leading up to large double doors. It looked like someone had stuck two to three houses together, blown a hole in the side of each and called it an entirely new house. To say the least, I was speechless – Silver, the quiet school toughie living in a house like _this!_

"What?" Silver looked at me and said, I remained quiet for a while before smiling, "This is amazing Silver…"

Silver sighed and shook his head, opening the iron black gates and letting himself in, I followed after the redhead. The pebbledash crunched under the weight of our feet, and I felt very uncomfortable all of a sudden. The house was giving away some kind of unsettling vibe that made whoever walked by feel watched, or made them feel very intimidated at the least. Or maybe I was just overreacting to how freaking surprised I was.

Silver pulled out his keys and turned them in the lock, opening the double doors with a loud creak. He confidently walked in, not giving a crap that this was the most terrifying house in the history of the universe. But I guess 'not giving a single fuck' was kinda Silver's way of living.

I reluctantly followed, keeping my hands to myself. Pictures of Silver and his dad were nailed onto the wall in large, gold frames. As we walked further through the house, the pictures never ceased to amaze me. Silver was younger, yeah, but he was _smiling_ in them. His father, Giovanni, was always wearing a formal suit, and looking proudly at his redheaded son. Pictures of Silver as a baby began to become more frequent as we climbed a spiralling staircase, he had larger eyes, and a small tuft of crimson on the top of his head. But what drew my attention the most, was the woman holding him – she was beautiful, had mercury eyes and her hair matched Silver's, except it fell to her waist, and she was happier than he could ever seem to be. I had an idea of who it was, and I just wanted to confirm it,

"Hey Silver. Who's that?" I said, pointing to the photo. Silver's eyes softened for a moment before grunting and looking away, "My mother."

He seemed unwilling to say so, and I remembered what he had said to the teachers at school,

"_My mother left when I was three years old and never came back."_

I followed him past an office which smelt of air-freshener overdose, and a hint of fruit. Papers were neatly gathered into piles with different coloured post-it notes stuck somewhere on the top page, identifying the stacks by their content. As I was staring, Silver grabbed my arm and yanked me towards another room; his room.

Once we walked inside, I first noticed how…red it was. Red walls and a red carpet cast a fiery glow on everything. Silver tossed his schoolbags onto his bed and sighed out; "Finally…" he fell back onto his bed with his arms spread out wide. I just kind of stood there…awkwardly. I didn't know what to do, or where to go. After a few long seconds of silence, Silver looked up at me, "Just sit down on it."

I did so, placing my hands in my lap and looking down at it. Silver managed to grab me to lie on the bed next to him; I smiled and cuddled up to the redhead, closing my eyes. After a few seconds of him not knowing what to do, he gently placed his arms around me. We laid in silence for what seemed like forever, not speaking, just enjoying each other's company and warmth. Silver wasn't the romantic type that would just smother you with everything sweet and perfect, he would just do small things that send your stomach to the circus - he was perfect to me.

The redhead buried his head into my neck, closing his eyes. I could feel his smile against my skin, and I wanted to see it, but it would probably disappear if I pushed him away to see.

Soon, I felt strange, very strange. I wanted to do things that I hadn't even thought of doing before – I didn't know if it was because I was on a bed with him or what, but it scared me; it scared me a lot, and I didn't like it one bit. Silver's grip tightened on me, and I felt his lips begin to caress my cheek gently, working their way down to my own lips, which he roughly kissed, pushing me so my back was against the soft sheets. Weirdly enough, I didn't panic. I wrapped my arms around him, kissing back with everything I had, working my hands up into his hair and running my fingers gently through it. Silver cupped my cheeks, rubbing them softly with his thumbs before sliding them gently to my neck, and then to my waist, which he gently gripped again. Our eyes were closed, and we were losing ourselves - fast at that. I ran my hands to his jacket, sliding it off of his shoulders and running my hands under his shirt, exploring the world of soft skin under my fingertips. I traced them under his arms and to his back, smoothing my hands from his shoulders down to the middle of his back, that was when I pulled away, staring up into his half-lidded eyes and softly breathing against his lips, "Silver, what the hell're we doing…?"

He buried his face against my neck again, I could feel his breath tickling my skin as it left a tingle afterwards, "I have no idea…but I want to carry on doing it…"

Suddenly, everything heated up as he placed his lips against my neck, kissing down my jawline to the skin below it. Sensations overwhelmed me, and I let out a small whine, gripping at his shoulders and gasping as I felt his tongue drag down to the crook of my neck. I whimpered, scared that we were going too far, "S-Silver…!" I breathed out, unable to control myself, "W-Why…?"

He didn't answer; just pulled back, looking down at me before claiming my lips with his own once more.

**-XxX-**

A few days later, it was the weekend.

"Kotone! Your phone's ringing!" My mom called, I shot down the stairs like a bullet, not caring about the things that flung across the floor from under my feet. I leapt onto the couch, seizing my phone and holding it to my ear, "Hello?"

"Kotone." A seemingly dull-voiced Silver spoke back, I smiled at the sound of his voice,

"Hey Silver."

My mom looked over, smiling knowingly although I didn't see her.

Silver sighed before speaking, "Listen, could you meet me at the end of New Bark? You know, by the corner shop?"

I frowned slightly, "Sure…just give me a minute…" I jumped slightly as he hung up quickly. Mom smiled wider, "Go. Have your lunch when you come back."

I nodded, grabbed my jacket and shoes, and ran out of the door.

I met Silver exactly where he said he was, by a small corner shop selling Pokémon food and other things like that. Silver smiled slightly, but it soon disappeared. I waved slightly before walking up to him; he made no motion to greet me.

"What's wrong?" I asked as Silver looked at me, straight into my eyes, and dread washed over me, making me shiver.

"There's something I have to tell you."

I grew more worried, and scared, I made guesses in my head; _what is it? Does he want to break up with me? Is he angry?_

"W-What's that?" I reluctantly replied, clenching my teeth slightly and taking a deep breath.

"You…know that my Dad owns a company called Rocket Industries, right?"

"Well…Yeah?"

Silver sighed and looked down at the floor for a second, crossing his arms, "He wants to expand the company…and ever since we could get to Unova a few months ago…he, uh…"

"He…?"

"He wants to move the main office there."

I frowned, confused, "Okay…?"

He sighed, "Which means I'm leaving. By the end of this year, I'll be gone, moved to Castelia City in Unova."

**-XxX-**

**~Author's notes~**

**DUN DUN DUN!**

**Okay, so it's been over six months, and I'm really sorry. But I've had someone put a hole in my old laptop by treading on it – therefore, I had to get a new one, and rewrite this all over again. **

**This is the second to last chapter, and I'll miss this story a lot, but it's finally time after a year and a half, to finish it.**

**It has over 100 reviews! Which I am VERY happy about! ^-^**

**I'll be writing a VOCALOID fan fiction after this one, so if you're interested, stay tuned!**

**Be patient for the next chapter – it will certainly come quicker than this one! Thanks if you're still tracking it!**


	15. Sayonara, Goodbye

**-Author's notes-**

**Thank you to everyone who read this story.**

**It's over now, but I will write more fan fiction. After this one, I'll be writing a VOCALOID fiction named "Leek Icecream."**

**Shameless self-advertising is shameless.**

**I'll change the name of this fanfic soon, along with the summary. It's not a great one. Haha.  
**

**Anyway, thank you again for reviewing and reading again! **

**See you soon,**

**-Sasori Burger.**

**-Xxx-**

**The Hell Known as High School Chapter 15**

**Sayonara. Goodbye.**

**-Xxx-**

"You can't go!" I cried, shutting my eyes to stop the tears from falling, "Stay here! Please! Just say that you'll stay with me!"

Silver sighed, saying nothing. He hugged me close, "I have to go, and it's already been decided."

I cried into him, the thought of him not being there anymore was too devastating to think about.

But it would happen – and now it was inevitable.

The end of the year came too quickly, and while everyone else in the school was happy about the last day until Christmas/New Years' holidays, I was the complete opposite. Silver stayed close to me for the whole day, and I said nothing to anyone else but him.

"Kotone, please just cheer up…" Silver whispered, sitting down with me. Nobody seemed to know that he was leaving except me, and that fact really annoyed me. To me, it was as if they didn't care what happened to him. I sighed and closed my eyes, wrapping my arms around myself to keep the cold December wind from nipping at my fingertips.

"How can I?" I asked, looking up at him.

Silver shrugged and crossed his arms, "You tell me."

"…If you stay, I'll be happy." I childishly stated, folding my arms to imitate him. Silver frowned at me, irritated. Good. That was exactly what I wanted him to feel.

"You're making this harder." He complained,

"Good." I snapped back, "It should be."

It wasn't long after that that everything went deadly silent between us. I looked one way, and he looked the other way. It began to kill me all of a sudden; I didn't want it all to end like this, did I? End it on a bad note? I opened my mouth to apologise, but Hikari came running over.

"Hey, Silver! Why the hell're you leaving!" She screeched, bending over and pretty much pressed her nose to his intimidatingly.

And that's when _everyone_ heard it. Swarms of people from our year gathered, asking relentless questions and God-knows what else. Silver stood up, looking down at his feet before facing the crowd,

"Leave me alone."

And then he left the crowd.

The time went by; I stuck to him like glue, not prepared to unstick myself anytime soon. But then it was the end of the school day – and that was the time that he was going to leave forever. Pretty much our whole year followed us out of the gates, and to Giovanni's long black, shiny car outside the school. Giovanni was sitting in the drivers' seat, arms folded and seemingly disgruntled by the amount of accident-prone schoolchildren outside of his car, he opened the passenger door carefully, looking up at Silver,

"Come on."

Silver sighed and threw his bag into the car before looking down at me. I began to cry, this would be the last time I ever see him, and the time was ticking too quickly. Silver bent to my eye level, and smiled. He smiled, which made me cry more, he didn't care that the whole crowd saw him smile – he did it because I was there. The redhead raised a hand to my cheek, and wiped some of the tears freely falling down my face, "Hey…"

I looked up at him, sniffling and trembling, "W-What?"

I saw a small, discreet tear fall from his eye and fall down his cheek before Silver kissed my forehead,

"I love you, Kotone."

I wailed, hugging him tightly to me and crying into his shoulder. After a few seconds, he unhooked my arms, slipped something cold into my hand, and got into the car. As it drove away, I opened my palm, to see a gold necklace. It had a solid gold, heart-shaped pendant on the chain. It was rusted at the edges somewhat and it had a latch so you could open it. The whole crowd swarmed around me, forming a circle. I opened the latch on the pendant – a crumpled piece of paper was inside, as well as a ticking clock. I opened the paper and smiled sadly as I read the scribbles for handwriting upon it.

"What's in it?" Hikari asked, and I shook my head,

"…Never mind."

I left, walking out of the crowd and away from Goldenrod city.

**-Xxx-**

_Kotone,_

_This necklace was my mother's. I hope that you'll understand what I'm giving to you; it's precious to me, like you are. But I wouldn't say that aloud to you, of course. I'm not some kind of cheese ball; I'm not charming or sweet. But I care about you…a lot more than I originally planned to. When you came up to me, what? Four years ago? I thought you'd be some brat that was gonna ask for trading cards, true story. But you became the one that kept persisting at me, adamant that you'd be my friend._

_You succeeded. And whaddya know? You were head over heels for me too._

_I hope that I'll meet you again someday soon, you're special – don't ever forget that._

_-Silver._

_(P.S: Don't ever show anyone this note either; it'll give them the wrong idea about me.) _

_**~Twelve years later…~**_

My name's Kotone. I'm twenty-seven years old. I have chocolate brown eyes, and long, chestnut hair that I like to leave down in the summer – exactly this time of year. I'm single, never been married, and live in Kanto with my friends Leaf and Red - who, unlike me, are married, they're married to each other. I've met some amazing people in my lifetime, some more amazing and more significant to me than others. But that doesn't stop me from meeting new friends. I've witnessed most of my high school classmates marry each other – this includes Barry and Hikari, Volkner and Candice. Heck, even Whitney married this guy called Bugsy. But I've never even thought about marrying anyone. Every wedding was different in its own way, and had its own little funny quirk.

At Red and Leaf's wedding, I wished I was the lucky one to get married. But something made me extremely happy that day; I didn't really know what it was. I didn't know if I felt happy for Leaf and Red, or if I felt happy because that was generally the vibe, or even if I was just in a brilliant mood – something did it. It was strange; it was like I'd wanted something. I remember Barry accidentally shoving Red's friend Blue over so hard he dropped the rings, and then there was a big exploration under all the seats for the gold objects. Barry dive bombed for them with Hibiki, causing a lot of people to topple onto the floor. Leaf watched and laughed, she laughed so much she nearly cried. Blue appeared to be more than a little bit pissed at being humiliated.

At Volkner and Candice's wedding, the whole wedding had a theme of blue things – Candice ordered that they got married in an ice rink-themed wedding. Volkner seemed a bit cheerier than usual that day. Even if everyone had to wear ice-skates and we couldn't even get out of the rink without ripping a dress or a shirt, or maybe breaking your thumb in Barry's case.

My last relationship was with Morty, the blonde boy I met at my camping trip when I was fourteen. He still wore sweaters and scarves everywhere except when it was summertime, and I stayed with him for five years. However, we broke up a few months ago because it just didn't work out anymore. Even being in a relationship for five years didn't keep me from thinking about another person, no matter how in love I was, I still thought of that one person that I felt truly blissful with.

My favourite and most precious item to me is a necklace I wear even to sleep. If I lost it, I'd lose everything. Nothing could mean more to me – it cannot be replaced.

Today, Red, Leaf and I are finally going to visit Unova – a region that is pretty isolated from the others, and is _very_ expensive to get to. You cannot get there by riding a Pokémon, due to the complete change in atmosphere – it scares them a great deal. For that reason, you have to leave your Pokémon in care while you visit Unova, or release them if you are going to live there.

Leaf, Red and I are going to stay with a young couple, Black and White. We're staying for a solid three months and I hope to enjoy the trip very much - who knows? Maybe I'll meet someone.

We boarded the underwater magnet train, lugging our suitcases behind us as we went. Red helped Leaf onto the train since her suitcases were the heaviest. I sat down in the window seat, leaning my head's weight onto a supporting palm as I gazed at the outside. I watched as some small children hurried onto other trains with their mothers, I enjoyed the sight and a small smile crept onto my features. When I was fifteen, going on sixteen, people said that I changed since the years before that, or so they assumed. I apparently became more down-to-Earth, more quiet and understanding. Apparently I didn't smile much – I couldn't remember those years very clearly apart from a few parts which stuck out to me.

I looked back down at my suitcase tucked neatly between my knees. I have a hat, a big balloon-like hat which is adorned with a large lipstick-red bow on the left side. This hat was tattered and beaten from the years after years of love I had given it, and yet it still hadn't fallen apart quite yet. I snapped out of my thoughts as Leaf sat herself next to me, tying up her brunette hair in a ponytail. Red sat opposite us, smiling at Leaf. The brunette next to me smiled back before turning her gaze to me,

"Kotone, have you even thought about having another relationship?"

I jumped slightly, a faint pink tinting my cheeks, "Not particularly…Why?"

Leaf giggled and held Red's hand under the table, "Morty is _not _going to be your last, right?"

"Of course not! Why would he be?" I joked, grinning somewhat at her. Leaf giggled slightly harder and smiled, nodding, "That's good to hear."

Truth was, I hadn't even thought about it. I deemed love to be not-so important in life and seeing sights to take its place in how urgent things were. This was when I started to notice all the couples everywhere – on the station platform a girl with blonde hair and a boy with charcoal hair and glasses were walking hand in hand. The raven-haired boy seemed to be rather serious, and the blonde girl had cheerful and bright features – needless to say, they were opposites. They came off of the train coming back from Unova, it seemed. Even a girl with magenta hair split into two fiery bunches and a boy with swept blue hair had their lips engaged whilst sitting on a bench. I guess it was all perfect for them. Red and Leaf engaged within conversation as I observed the outside still. Everything seemed to be slow today, I needed to go to a new place, and leave some memories here where they should be.

I had fallen into a deep sleep halfway through the train journey, my head lulled onto my own shoulder, my cheek squashed. I was awoken by Leaf shaking me,

"Kotone! Kotone! We're here!"

I groaned softly and opened my eyes, lo and behold, we were here. Unova had a thicker air to it, and seemed less polluted than the other regions I had experienced for myself. As the three of us stepped outside, we were greeted by Black and White. White had dark brunette hair, so did Black. White had bright baby-blue eyes, Black had chocolate brown. They stood hand-in-hand happily smiling.

"We're Black and White!" They said in unison, which made me smile. Leaf latched onto Red, grinning.

"We live in Castelia City, so we'll need to take another train there."

Castelia City…the name was so familiar…

As I walked the streets of Castelia alone, I could tell it was a fresh place…there was just something very odd about it.

"Everyone seems so happy…" I said to myself, glancing at passers-by. I jumped slightly as someone pushed past me, quickly apologising afterwards.

"_I'm moving to Castelia City in Unova."_

He might be here. Would he remember me? Was there a chance that he would know who I was?

I looked up at a large building I was standing besides, an office building with a logo pasted on a few selected windows: a bright red 'R.'

I smiled to myself as I looked inside through the bottom floor window, catching a glimpse of crimson locks on a tall figure.

**-**_**Fin.**_


End file.
